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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25252408">Knight's Dream</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinashi/pseuds/Shinashi'>Shinashi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ai no Kusabi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Animal Traits, Fantasy, M/M, Other, Pseudo-Incest, Public Sex, Slavery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:40:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>33,044</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25252408</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinashi/pseuds/Shinashi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Riki makes a promise to an ethereal creature named Iason to return him home. Ancient magic makes him forget the entire ordeal, but Iason remembers. Unfortunately, evil eyes have been watching over them, an evil surpassed only by the incredible greed of their tools. Avarice gives them this chance, perhaps with a little help from the otherwise inconsequential fact that love conquers all.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Iason Mink/Riki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The rating shall change in the next chapter- but right now, it's fine. I hope it is as cute as I wanted it to be. But I could never write a whole story with such a low rating! It's not in me. This is for the Summer Discord challenge, so... That's why I am writing two fics at the same time lol</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the first time out of many that Riki and his littermates from Guardian escaped the confines of the warding poles, and the first and only time they trespassed through the Kazara wheat fields. As had been passed down through the generations of Ceres village youths, they were attempting to find Abis Castle. More specifically, they sought a lookout tower on the very edges of Abis Castletown.</p>
<p>One could see it if they climbed just a little ways into Hot Crack, the almost intolerable heat of the cursed valley between Ceres and the rest of the world, ensconced on each side by the Dana Bahn Mountains. Only the bravest (or stupidest) of Ceres villagers crossed the valley without plenty preparation.</p>
<p>However, there was a path that children could take. For some reason, this path could only be spoken of by children to children, remembered just the same. While most kids attempted the trek, most never completed that task of climbing the lookout. They passed out along the path while waking up at the door of Guardian.</p>
<p>The five of them finished packing, walked to the small entrance to the beginning of the path.</p>
<p>“They could have been y-ing, Wikki,” Guy murmured, wiping away the sweat already beading across his forehead. “They ‘wolder.” His large front teeth had both been popped off last week after a game of King of the Mountain, and he had remarkable trouble making sounds with the combination of lips and now-missing teeth. None would tease him about it, though, not with Riki being as strong as he was small.</p>
<p>Riki’s small body was already crawling inside. “You saw how Langeais acted when ya asked her. Are ya sayin’ she was just in on the joke?</p>
<p>Guy didn’t have anything to say to that except, “You sood call ‘er Madam Langeais,” and he crawled in behind, going as prone as possible so that his ears, equally large like his baby teeth, didn’t scratch against the top of the tunnel. It was hard, because just being there made his ears stand on end.</p>
<p>Luke complained, “It’s so hot…” With his reptilian skin, and nowhere to release his heat, he had the most to lose, which was why Riki decided he would go in the middle, just in case someone needed to push and/or pull him through.</p>
<p>Norris went right after him because he was the strongest, but he couldn’t go last because he was almost blind in the darkness, and it would freak him out (his words) to be at the end. Of course, they were all pretty much blind but for their Guardian Stones glowing their soft green light. Going to sleep with them would take them to the door of Guardian where on the other side was a lecture to end all lectures.</p>
<p>Besides Norris’ concern, Sid was also last because no matter how low he put his head, his antlers would scratch the walls, sending a steady stream of dirt around and behind him.</p>
<p>That’s how they crawled through the tunnel.</p>
<p>Riki could barely contain his excitement. Seeing Langeais’ eyes cloud over with old magic convinced him that on the other side of the path lied the fantastic so wanting in Ceres. The exhausting climb to barely see the tower was followed by the quick check to see if the tunnel existed.</p>
<p>“The tower is huge! You’ll see the rest of the world from there!” Django had told them. He was almost an adult, and worked hard to be able to take the Knight’s Trial. “You’ll see Midastown and Tanagura City. If the weather is perfect, you’ll see the shine of the Eos Tower where Our Glorious Jupiter dwells.”</p>
<p>Riki didn’t give a flying fuck about Jupiter, but the paintings of Eos were admittedly impressive, and to see something other than the tight confines of the warding poles drew him more than anything. None could come back into the village without a Guardian Stone, and the wards sounded an alarm alike a cacophony of birds’ cries if a child crossed the lines.</p>
<p>“For some reason, even if a kid walked between the two red trees to the east, the alarm doesn’t sound, but you can only come in and out through the red trees.”</p>
<p>Before they left, they tested out the extent of their Guardian Mother’s knowledge: “Oi, Langeais, you know about them red trees to the east?”</p>
<p>“Madam, Riki! Madam!”</p>
<p>“Maaaaadaaaaaammmmm.”</p>
<p>Madam Langeias had sighed from the depths of her soul before taking the question seriously.</p>
<p>She stopped completely in the middle of feeding one of the children, red eyes twitching out of focus, and her starkly white doe ears sank slowly to the side of her head.</p>
<p>“There are no red trees to the east,” the Madam said slowly.</p>
<p>“What you talkin’ ‘bout? Langie? Are you okay?”</p>
<p>Her eyes focused. “Madam Langeais, Riki!”</p>
<p>“Maaaaadaaaaaam! The red trees!”</p>
<p>“At Asteroid Lake?”</p>
<p>Guy corrected softly, “No, Madam, the ones to the east.”</p>
<p>After the familiar pause, the Madam repeated, “There are no red trees to the east.”</p>
<p>So there must be something out there! On the other side of the path! No way that type of magic would affect all the adults wasn’t also something cool. There had to be something cool on the other side, something amazing that he had never seen before, and he wanted to be one of the few who found it.</p>
<p>While he didn’t know about how few children managed to get to the tower, and in fact didn’t know that anyone made it other than Django, he felt as if he wasn’t the first to make it, but he’ll be one of the ones to come back and talk to Django about it. Him and his friends, of course.</p>
<p>First, he had to survive sweating his skin off while crawling through the increasingly narrow space. No wonder no adults knew about this; there was no way they could fit.</p>
<p>From far back, further back than Riki expected: “Riki! I gotta go back!”</p>
<p>“Sid? Are your antlers stuck?” He the scratching had been gone for a while now, he finally noticed.</p>
<p>“Yea! I can’t! I can’t even move right now… I think I might have to break the tips.”</p>
<p>
  <em>Pop! Pop!</em>
</p>
<p>He did just that.</p>
<p>“Oh, ok, be careful!” Riki continued forward.</p>
<p>Guy murmured from his spot in the line, “We should all go back.”</p>
<p>“I can’t be last!” Norris wailed. “I want to go back too!” A moment later: “I’m gonna go back!”</p>
<p>From further back: “I need you to kick my antlers, Norris!”</p>
<p>“Be careful,” whispered Guy. “Are you sure you don’t wanna go back?”</p>
<p>“I’m sure!” Riki said at once, with a bit of a whine.</p>
<p>They continued crawling. Impossibly, the air grew more stifling, but Riki could hear through his own small, furry ears the wheat swaying in the summer night, and smelled their sunburned stalks. He could hear crickets, and the creaking of the open-air pockets that seemed to infest the mountain overhead. One good crackle and all of it would squish the three of them like bugs.</p>
<p>Three… Three of them?</p>
<p>“Luke?!”</p>
<p>Guy screamed: “Ah! Why you scweaming, Wikki?”</p>
<p>“Is Luke behind you?”</p>
<p>“Uh…”</p>
<p>He could hear Guy kicking behind him, scoot backwards, kick, kick, scooted, kicked. Riki heard the thump of sandaled foot on a body far behind.</p>
<p>“Let’s go back, Wikki! He’s not moving!”</p>
<p>“You go back with him!”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“You go back.” Riki continued forward, now more determined than ever and, just slightly, a bit happy to know that he was now alone to do what he wanted and not worry a lick about anyone else. He knew what he wanted and he will follow things through!</p>
<p>Guy called out to him, “You better come back, Wikki!”</p>
<p>Guy not staying to pester him about the safety of his conduct surprised Riki just a bit, but he took this as good as permission as any. He would come back with a story of how tall the tower was and how bright Eos’ stone shone. Even though the sweat started to sting his eyes, and he now wanted water more than he’s ever wanted water in his life, he believed steadfastly in the magic he looked for.</p>
<p>“YES!”</p>
<p>Riki popped out of the hole, nearly getting his head stuck with his hand underneath his chin. There was no way Sid would have made it.</p>
<p>“I made it!”</p>
<p>He jumped around in circles, giggling in a way that he would never have done in front of others.</p>
<p>He stopped.</p>
<p>The area before him held no wheat, or the tower, just the castle town walls. Riki heard nothing of any plantlike sort- no, he did. Turning around, wheat waves reached his ears miles away, where the other side of Hot Crack opened up in a wide, cooling gesture. On the other side of the heated valley, Ceres had to be there. Riki turned around in circles, looking for the cave, but didn’t find it. He did find the tower blending into Hot Crack, and then he saw the hole he had popped from, something small, nothing so grandiose as a secret tunnel, more like a rabbit’s hideaway hole.</p>
<p>Riki smelled Ceres from the entrance.</p>
<p>“Magic?”</p>
<p>From over his shoulder, he heard the calm, soft voice of a complete stranger, “Didn’t work on you, apparently.”</p>
<p>Riki snapped around.</p>
<p>An impossibly huge woman of a snow-white hue stood from between the wheat fields and the castle, wearing the simplest of white dresses. Her wide eyes and elliptical pupils, her long straight hair, her skin flickering with the sparkle of scales, all shining white. She twitched her head to the side, and with her fingers interlaced, she re-laced them with interest, snow-white eyebrows raised.</p>
<p>“You can see me, little one?”</p>
<p>“Uh, yea.” Riki swallowed thickly. “Are you a g-g-ghost?”</p>
<p>Her thin lips stretched into a smile. “Are you afraid of ghosts?”</p>
<p>“No!” Riki sniffed, jutting his fists onto his hips. “So, I don’t care if you are a ghost or not.”</p>
<p>“I see. Good. Then I won’t tell you if I am a ghost or not.”</p>
<p>“Good!” That was not good, but he didn’t want the scary lady to see that on his face. He turned to the castle and started walking towards it, lifting his fit with stiff jerks. Maybe if he got inside the castle walls, he’ll see Eos, which was blocked from his view.</p>
<p>The woman warned, “You should return, while you have this second chance. There is a Midnight Run tonight.”</p>
<p>Riki didn’t know what a Midnight Run was, but he still said, “I’m good!”</p>
<p>Riki found it weird that the woman was so large and walked so softly, even if her obviously huge feet stepped on grass. He could ask her who she was and why she was there and why she cared if he went into the castle, but she creeped him out and he couldn’t keep the shakes from his fingers.</p>
<p>“Little one!”</p>
<p>“I’m not that little!” His tiny feet marched forward.</p>
<p>“Six years old is very little.”</p>
<p>“I’m ten!”</p>
<p>“Oh?” She suddenly appeared at his side. It had to be magic; Riki heard no extra steps. “You’re exceedingly small for a child of ten years.”</p>
<p>Again: “I’m not that little! You’re just really big!”</p>
<p>The pinprick end of her long fingernail tapped the side of her mouth. “You have me there.”</p>
<p>She chuckled, and then let out a short gasp. Riki looked below her chin and saw her reach out her hand into some invisible wall, an invisible wall that turned her own hand invisible.</p>
<p>“You’re not a ghost! You’re just cursed!” Riki said with relief, but his wariness returned with a start. “Why are you cursed? Did you do something bad?”</p>
<p>Standing still at her invisible border she answered softly, “Yes.”</p>
<p>“What you do?”</p>
<p>“What <em>did </em>I do? Nothing evil, per se, just foolish. Just one drink from one man has created all the misery in the world.</p>
<p>“But enough about me, little one. You have been given a second chance. Return to Ceres.”</p>
<p>At her instructions, a child’s watery scream bellowed from the castle with an explosion of greenish fire peaking over the high crumbling stone. Wailing carried on for moments longer before a guttural wretch ended it.</p>
<p>Riki turned from the sound to find the white lady turned around, tears falling down soft.</p>
<p>Heart in his throat, Riki whispered, “Can I help?”</p>
<p>She blinked at Hot Crack, and then seemed to actually hear the words he had said, her long ears twitching the small hanging diamonds to a twinkle.</p>
<p>“Help? Why would you help me?”</p>
<p>“Why would you help me? Saying I should go back and stuff.”</p>
<p>She smiled, pushing a tear down a different path.</p>
<p>“I am an adult and you are a child. Adults should protect children.”</p>
<p>“Well, that’s just-uh opinion.”</p>
<p>“Yes, <em>an </em>opinion.”</p>
<p>“And it’s my opinion that children can protect adults sometimes too.” Riki looked at the castle wall, finding a climbable spot not too far. “Was I supposed to pop up inside the castle?”</p>
<p>The woman shook her head. “You were supposed to be transported to the tower over yonder, where someone would take you against your will and make you into Carpet material.”</p>
<p>“Make? Carpets volunteer.”</p>
<p>Her sad eyes fluttered closed.</p>
<p>“I knew it! I bet even the Fashion Plates aren’t volunteers either!”</p>
<p>She shuddered, glancing at Abis. “How perceptive you are. They are not.”</p>
<p>“I knew it! Wait… Does that mean merchants ain’t a real job either?”</p>
<p>“Mercantilism, if that is what you mean, is most certainly a profession. Is that what you wish to do? Leave Ceres and sell wares?”</p>
<p>Riki nodded with a grin. “People say I knack for it!”</p>
<p>“Do they now?”</p>
<p>“And Langie says I could knack for being a Knight, but I don’t know how to follow directions. But! She’s right! I’m not gonna follow directions and I’mma go in there and see if someone needs my help. I’m good at hiding and if… Um... If kids are being hurt, I’ll hide them and then bring them out here to you when the coast is clear.”</p>
<p>She shook her head. “Do not bring them here.”</p>
<p>Riki protested, “But you said you’re an adult.”</p>
<p>“I cannot help them, little one. This is only a projection of myself, and this projection only goes this far. I’ll only be able to see them. They won’t even see me.”</p>
<p>Several screams erupted at once, chilling Riki’s spine and making his narrow entertwined tails stand on end.</p>
<p>“Do you want to see them?”</p>
<p>Her silence told Riki all he needed to know, even as her mouth said, “No. I do not. They’ll be tortured for their rest of their lives, and I cannot help them.”</p>
<p>“Where are you? Maybe I can walk them back to you,” Riki tried again. His view of life churned with an oppressive darkness which heretofore was blocked from his child’s vision. Surely there was some bright light to shine on this situation. The nice, scary lady depressed him with her seemingly bottomless pessimism.</p>
<p>“My curse makes me unable to even look the direction of where I am, much less speak of it. Just know it’s far away, further than you’ll reach even if you spread your business in every cardinal direction for the next millennia.”</p>
<p>“So you’re at Eos Tower!”</p>
<p>She disappeared, just like that, blipped from existence and instead of being confused on why she left, he instead believed that the curse made her disappear because he was right.</p>
<p>Like she had said, he was most perceptive.</p>
<p>As well as that, he was no liar. He ran to the protruding stones of the castle wall and climbed quickly, the strength in his little legs bringing him up top and around in moments where others would have taken at least ten minutes, not even taking account the very likely likelihood of falling down and having to start over.</p>
<p>The up-close look of Abis Castle Riki had demolished his expectations. While the walls fell apart from the outside, Abis Castle itself stood tall and majestic, very much in use. In fact, Riki turned around and saw the walls from the inside had substantial upkeep, with tapestries infused with magic and real skill covering every inch that didn’t have a marble statue or some ginormous weapon fit for a scary white cursed lady.</p>
<p>In effect, the place proved the most glorious location Riki’s ever laid eyes on.</p>
<p>Then a child- looking much like the ghost lady- climbed out of a ground floor window, landing on their face. They were completely naked. Riki couldn’t explain why, but the thought of being killed naked put fresh indignancy to the atrocity taking place.</p>
<p>Foolishly, the child was running straight down away from the window, under full view of a full moon, so Riki went on all fours to cross the distance before someone else got to the window. The other child stopped in their tracks at the sight of this speeding shadow, fleeing back to the window, and impossibly foolishly, attempted to climb back up!</p>
<p>Riki grabbed their leg to pull them down, shoving their head back and down way underneath the concrete windowsill longer than his arm.</p>
<p>With little time to spare, Riki felt the body of an adult slam into the window’s space.</p>
<p>“Iason came out here! He must have gone back inside!” yelled some woman in annoyance. “Damn it… What the fuck happened!”</p>
<p>Heavy boots joined her at the window.</p>
<p>“Just gotta call through the mic. Some Ceres kids made it through the tunnel the long way, none of them ever made it to the tower even. Django couldn’t get to them before they made their way back to Guardian- they don’t remember a thing though, from what the Madam says.”</p>
<p>The woman sighed loudly. “The Carpet Tunnel fucked up and messed up the collars? Why is all that magic connected?!”</p>
<p>“It’s old magic. I heard no one can even do it anymore.”</p>
<p>“There’s only three of us left to collar them all again! We should just leave them here to starve instead of trying to collar them and being burned alive.”</p>
<p>Her friend scoffed. “It’ll take them decades to starve, and they can leave now, without the collars. The only reason anyone is being burned is because they are trying to hurt them or rape them. Just talk to them like babies and give them food and they’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>“What if they already saw one of their siblings being killed- attempting to be killed?”</p>
<p>“Idiot! C’mon, let’s find one of them that’s fully healed up, then!”</p>
<p>With that, they left the window.</p>
<p>“Okay, let’s get outta here,” Riki instructed, pulling on the frail pale arm.</p>
<p>It looked frail. It was not. Riki could barely move it.</p>
<p>Still, the child whispered, “You’re very strong.”</p>
<p>“C’mon! Iason, yea? Let’s go. Before they start looking for you outside!”</p>
<p>“I’m not going with a dwarf who’s just trying to steal me for cheap. I’d rather starve here in Abis.”</p>
<p>Riki gave the child a look of exasperation, but was arrested by the sad blue eyes around elliptic pupils, and the wan but round face glinting with barely-there scales. Unabashedly, he continued roaming his eyes over the narrow shoulders, the pinkest nipples in the universe, and the lumps that counted for ‘pee-pees’ for ‘girlies’. Iason covered himself there and Riki’s eyes snapped back up, now fully abashed.</p>
<p>“I’m not a dwarf!” he said too loudly, dropping his words to a whisper. “See my ears? And my tails? I even got wings!” He pulled up his shirt to showcase the thin wings that will never fly.</p>
<p>“A dwarf can have all of those,” Iason told him. Still, their blue eyes eyed Riki’s tails curiously. “But your back is not that of an adult dwarf. Which means you’re just a mongrel from Ceres.”</p>
<p>“Don’t call me that!”</p>
<p>Iason huffed. “What? It’s true.”</p>
<p>“I’m Riki from Ceres!”</p>
<p>“Who’s a mongrel.”</p>
<p>“Alright, I’m not gonna call you Iason. You’re just a Fashion Plate.”</p>
<p>Riki huffed now as Iason looked down with hands clenched tightly.</p>
<p>Then he smelled the salt from their tears.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! Don’t cry! C’mon! Let’s go over the wall so you can meet the scary lady.”</p>
<p>“I don’t wanna meet a scary lady!”</p>
<p>“She’s nice, though.”</p>
<p>“Nice and scary?”</p>
<p>“Yea. Like Madam Langeais when you steal an apple from the kitchen.”</p>
<p>“Oh.” Iason nodded. “I understand now.”</p>
<p>“You gonna come?”</p>
<p>“Ok…”</p>
<p>Iason didn’t seem that convinced, but they followed at least, while Riki listened out for any bad adults. Once they reached the wall, Riki climbed up quick as usual, finding four stones to make the less convenient trek on the neat stone.</p>
<p>Iason grabbed hold of a single rock sticking out and threw himself across the wall in one fluid movement.</p>
<p>Riki couldn’t help but yell, “You said I was strong!”</p>
<p>“Yes?”</p>
<p>“But you just went whoo over the wall just like that!”</p>
<p>“I didn’t say you were stronger than me.”</p>
<p>Riki pouted.</p>
<p>A familiar gasp had Riki turning around to the scary white lady. She had her hands over her heart like what the helpers at Guardian would do when he would kiss the boo-boos of some stupid little kid. So that means he did something right!</p>
<p>“Where is the lady?” Iason asked, turning his head every which way.</p>
<p>Riki now just remembered that the lady said they won’t be able to see her. “She’s right here, but you can’t see her.”</p>
<p>Iason’s blue eyes went wide, but the pupils sharpened razor-thin. “What trickery is this? Are you some old man in a child’s body? What shall you gain from doing this to me?!”</p>
<p>The woman said softly, “Mink.”</p>
<p>So Riki said softly, “Mink?”</p>
<p>Iason’s face softened so much, Riki believed they transformed into an even younger version of themselves!</p>
<p>“Why did you call me Mink?” Iason asked in a whisper, as if believing things to be too good to be true was too good to be true.</p>
<p>“She said it.”</p>
<p>“That’s my middle name… Ask her who’s my hatchmate.”</p>
<p>“She can hear you.” Riki waited for the woman to answer. “She said Raoul?”</p>
<p>“Mother!” Iason reached out, going straight through his mother. “I felt her! Just a small bit. Is it a projection?”</p>
<p>Riki grinned from ear to ear. “Yep! But only I can see her for some reason.”</p>
<p>“Then that means <em>you’re </em>the one causing all the magical problems. But you’re a baby!”</p>
<p>“I’m ten!”</p>
<p>“We’re the same age?!” Iason stopped in his tracks, green fire leaving his mouth with each word: “That means Mother didn’t leave us in the castle. I knew it! They kidnapped us! I knew it! I knew it! I will kill them all! I don’t care about the Cryptic stones! They’ll have to melt me to mush to stop me!”</p>
<p>Jupiter screeched, “No! Riki! By the gods, tell him to make his way home. If… By the gods… By Lord Zeus… If he makes his way home… This sorrow shall end! Just one of them needs to make it. And I’ll find them all.”</p>
<p>Iason demanded, “What is she saying?”</p>
<p>Riki summed up, “She says if you make it home, the curse will be broken. She says only one of you needs to make it and she can find the rest of ya.”</p>
<p>“But… I can’t make it on my own. Any adult that I ask for help will try to sell me or use me…” Iason sniffed. Shortly, he was sobbing. “I want to go home.”</p>
<p>Jupiter fell to her knees, fingers caressing around and through Iason’s cheek. “Such torture to be so close and so far. I am at a lost. If only I could get close to a Summer’s Game.”</p>
<p>Realizing the Summer Games, Riki suddenly yelled out, “I’mma be a Knight!”</p>
<p>The two of them turned at once, and Riki suddenly thought of how pretty they were. They were pretty people.</p>
<p>“I’ll be a Knight and fight for Iason! And when they give me my station, I’ll just ignore them and take him home!”</p>
<p>Jupiter shook her head- <em>so </em>negative- and she told him, “When you go back through that tunnel, you shall forget everything.”</p>
<p>“Maybe it won’t work?”</p>
<p>“If it doesn’t, you’ll never return and shall die of thirst.”</p>
<p>“Oh… Well… Okay, here.”</p>
<p>Riki took out his Guardian stone.</p>
<p>“If I forgets, you can ‘member me and remind me when they make you a prize at a Summer Game. If I die, you can find Guy, or Norris, or Sid. Luke is a meanie sometimes, but you can try him, too.”</p>
<p>“Foolish! Little one! If you don’t have your Guardian stone, you might get lost! If you go outside the warding poles and some creature or adult threatens you, you will be taken! That stone keeps you safe!”</p>
<p>While Jupiter lectured him, Riki watched Iason press the stone into his hair and then tie it up in a hump.</p>
<p>“I suppose I should return and put the collar back on.” Iason stared at the castle wall without moving.</p>
<p>Waiting, Riki asked, “What the collar do?”</p>
<p>“Makes me weak, tired. I can’t breathe fire either. I might as well not be a dragon.”</p>
<p>“What’s a dragon?”</p>
<p>Iason sighed. “Doesn’t matter. I won’t be able to say it with the collar on anyway.”</p>
<p>“Oh.”</p>
<p>“Do you not need this stone? I feel great magic from it.”</p>
<p>“Nah. It just tells me where’s home, but I can already see it from here.”</p>
<p>“I see.”</p>
<p>“You want me to stay until you’re ready to go back?”</p>
<p>Iason’s mouth quivered as fresh tears fell around his mouth. Just as he was about to answer, a yell from the Abis wall: “There’s one of them out here! And some sort of black animal!”</p>
<p>“GO HOME, LITTLE ONE!” Iason’s mother bellowed with such energy and volume, Riki was on all fours at once, leaping into the tunnel and struggling to get through, or at least far enough.</p>
<p>From over his shoulders, he heard the bad adult at the end of the tunnel, “Wait. Did that thing come out of the tunnel- it’s a kid? Hey. Iason. Look, I lost my Cryptic stone, but I promise you that I won’t put you in the collar. Just come with me. You can’t fit down that hole anyway. And it’s so hot down there, you’ll die all thirsty. C’mon.</p>
<p>“Wait. C’mon, put the fire away. I promise you-”</p>
<p>“You saw my friend.”</p>
<p>“What? It doesn’t matter! He’ll be dead very soon.”</p>
<p>“Just in case.”</p>
<p>“Just in case? You’re going to kill me just in case?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>Riki could see the fire from the tunnel, and he continued crawling, hoping he remembered everything, the scary mom lady, Iason, his promise, and that he wouldn’t die of thirst.</p>
<p>He didn’t die. And he didn’t remember.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Like To A Double Cherry</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Iason's remembrances has carried him to the upcoming travesties of the Summer Games. The hoops he has upcoming are enough to stop any regular man, but he's about as regular as a black diamond. Speaking of which...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Iason had more nerves on this day than he’s ever had in his life, and probably will ever have again. Ten years passed with every indignity, every humiliation, every day. The thick collar interwoven with gold overwritten with runes, copied from methods of eons passed. Between that and the gorgeous cubes that made up the Cryptic stones, Iason had every chance to listen to the wills of those who handled him.</p><p>Though they would have said they had taken care of him, loved him as their own child, and other utter lies.</p><p>Today he awoke to the bell.</p><p>“Iason. Today’s outfit has been decided for a long time.”</p><p>“I know, Daryl.”</p><p>The Carpet for him, who himself wore a simple tunic and leggings. Daryl slept with him every night, helped him bathe, woke him in the morning, made sure his collar was good and tight, gave him his lessons or took him here and there and wherever to learn what they wanted Iason to learn. Today would be the last day Iason needed a Carpet, and Daryl would hound some other poor underage… creature… through their training until some terrible Summer Game, if he didn’t manage to sell himself to some random stranger.</p><p>Daryl also dressed him. Yet, Summer Games traditions required he paraded himself around basically naked but for his collar.</p><p>Daryl corrected him when he was being impolite, rude, prideful- a word that usually meant he spoke up for himself on the slightest topics. Refusing to suck on some marble phallus for the eightieth time, going back to sleep after a long night, asking for another pound of horsemeat because he was so hungry- all prideful.  Yet, Daryl only corrected him in front of others. In private, he would advise, and from what Iason could observe, he was one of the few Carpets who didn’t use every ounce of their small amount of power to make their Fashion Plate miserable.</p><p>Because of that, although Daryl had the power to call upon a sentinel, who would happily slap him, punch him, stuff worms down his throat, stick their fingers inside him, melt him with Cryptic stones, Iason knew he could trust Daryl with anything. The magic of the stones took everything away but his bones, but as long as he had them, he could regrow every cell back complete. If he misbehaved, he gets the stone again, if he behaved, they let him sleep for three days.</p><p>After the third time, Daryl never called a sentinel again. So, Iason tried to behave in front of others, knowing that Daryl would be all the happier to never see him melt.</p><p>Of course... Melting was excruciating, but sometimes he couldn’t keep his pride in check. The number of times he’s gotten the stone because of talking back or hitting away some errant hand, gods above, gods above.</p><p>At least none of that could be blamed on Daryl.</p><p>Iason’s actions today wouldn’t be blamed on Daryl, either, and emotions would run so very high today, all the focus shall be on him. So much money will be given to his so-called caretakers, and the idea of Knights meant many a person would have a steady job and a steady… creature… to bring them wealth for generations to come.</p><p>As he had planned for years, the Knight for him will be the little Ceres mongrel from that night. If he didn’t find the man, or if he had always been some powerfully magicked man in the body of a child, he will act as he wanted for the rest of his life, invite the deep-boned misery of the Cryptic stone over and over again. If only he could just murder himself, but the collar wouldn’t allow him, and he didn’t know what he needed to do to kill himself and keep himself dead.</p><p>“Let us bathe, Iason.”</p><p>They went to the baths, stripping together underneath the falling water pouring from the mouths of small gargoyles. Plates and Carpets joined them.</p><p>None of the other Plates were of the thirteen in his brood, and they had separated him from his hatchmate years ago with the promise that they will rejoin each other at a Summer Game, if neither of them was healing from a Cryptic Stone, that is, or if neither of them was sold for a ludicrous amount of money early. Iason never had that chance; he was too flighty, as he was told.</p><p>Raoul could have… But he had promised to be just disobedient enough to be flung into a Summer Game.</p><p>He promised.</p><p>“Hurry up, you ugly Plate!”</p><p>“Why are you so slow?”</p><p>“I will call a Sentinel! You know I will!”</p><p>They finished bathing in silence, returned to their Abis castle chamber, and Daryl applied the oils to his skin and hair, then added some jewelry, causing Iason to raise his eyebrows.</p><p>“You have to at least pretend that you hadn’t a plan beforehand. Even if there is a chance of failure.”</p><p>“Alright. Just gold and onyx then, please.”</p><p>Daryl gestured to the ensemble. “You do not think I took your tastes into account?”</p><p>Iason saw nothing but gold and onyx stones, including a crown to wrap around his head.</p><p>“However, I pray you forgive me this one time.”</p><p>“For what?” Iason inquired.</p><p>Daryl lifted the rug which made up his bed from the floor, all the way to the middle of the gigantic pattern, and there was a loose stone which he overturned. Inside the hole was a box- completely empty, which he threw over his shoulder- and a cloth, and another cloth, both rejected for another flat stone underneath, a thicker cloth, and underneath it all was a necklace with a Guardian stone. Small and green, encased in gold.</p><p>“Say you found it.”</p><p>Seeing it peeved Iason just a bit.</p><p>“I thought I had lost it, Daryl! You’ve been hiding it? This whole time?”</p><p>Daryl tied the necklace around his neck, while hanging the stone itself in this hair at the base of his crown, standing on tip-toe to reach.</p><p>“There was no way you could have hidden it properly, nor have it with you on this day.”</p><p>Iason puckered his lips, knowing this to be true, but not wanting to give him the satisfaction.</p><p>“Don’t pout with me, Iason.”</p><p>Iason tucked in his lips, a bit. As they were joining everyone else in the courtyard, he finally whispered, “Thank you, Daryl.”</p><p>“Of course.” They joined the other Carpets and Plates, with their special spot in their line of five by five. They were third of the third line, smack dab in the middle. Beside them stood Seteth and Jacob, and Flayn and Jason.</p><p>“Stand up straight. Don’t start cutting yourself slack just because Iason’s here.” Flayn struck her Jason with her crop. Daryl never even picked his up. Once Iason had asked whether or not he should behave so that other Plates wouldn’t have to suffer around him.</p><p>“Flayn rapes Jason with random objects, Iason. You being there is nothing but an excuse to turn Plates against each other so that they will never work together.” His brown hand had patted his white one. “They taught us to do that.”</p><p>“Why didn’t you learn?”</p><p>“I did. I refuse not to apply what I’ve learned.”</p><p>And nothing from his fellow Carpets ever registered. Daryl ignored them all as easily as if they were air, no matter if they told on him or tattled about how Iason said this or that. Punishment washed over him as it washed over Iason. It didn’t help that when Iason put his all into service. When he put slight effort into being the perfect Plate, he had every skill. Everyone recognized his ability and everyone knew, on some level, that if Iason behaved all the time and not just when whimsy took him, he would have been sold for a fortune to royalty. Been a Link to some person’s Ganondorf, or Gunnthra to some Surtr.</p><p>The thought made Iason’s skin crawl. He’d rather the stone every now and again.</p><p>Chief Jayd, foremost in the ranking of the sentinels, stood atop a raised pedestal. His Plate held the solid stone balanced atop his head, dressed in a resplendent gown of pearl and white to match the marble of the pedestal.</p><p>“So extravagant. Makes you aware of how he has the presence of a gnat,” muttered Iason.</p><p>“Behave for a little while longer, Iason. You do not want to be stoned today of all days.”</p><p>“I hope the Plate yawns.”</p><p>Iason caught a grin wavering on Daryl’s face.</p><p>His voice amplified by two rainbow stones on the corners of his mouth, Jayd spoke to them, “This is the day all of you have prepared for. You have lost the incredible honor of being placed among royalty and now must make do with being graced by the presence of a Knight.”</p><p>Iason whispered, “So is it a good thing or bad thing? Make up your mind.”</p><p>“Iason! Shush! If you get too much attention, they will notice your stone!”</p><p>He had forgotten about that! He shut his trap. For the moment.</p><p>“Although several of you massacred dozens a decade ago, you have been given another chance. Do not waste it. Remember. You have all volunteered for this position after being abandoned and we took you in to treat you-”</p><p>“-as our own children, blah blah blah,” Iason said this so quietly even Daryl couldn’t hear exactly what he said- but he snapped his fingers at him nonetheless.</p><p>“Although the purpose of the games isn’t to rehome you Carpets, remember to offer yourself for a fair price. Every coin is for the Kingdom of Amoi. Remember your place in it, and you shall-”</p><p>“Place high.”</p><p>That was Daryl.</p><p>“Hmph!”-“Shush!”</p><p>“Prepare for transportation!”</p><p>Iason had never been more prepared in his life!</p><p>This will be the last time he would be transported from the castle yard, the last time he would arrive at the wide-open spaces surrounding the Summer Coliseum, but instead of being corralled into an open tent to be ogled at, he could walk around to be ogled at.</p><p>He realized then that the open spaces he was used to only existed there at the ogling tent, and where they now dropped off the Carpets and Plates teemed with life. Music, animals, people. There was enough food to feed even a… creature… like him.</p><p>His curiosity indeed was piqued, but he had a mission long before he’s had sight or sound of his newfound freedom and he will not abandon it now. It will be a sight to remember for everyone who crossed his path.</p><p>He passed the highest of the upper-crust, most descending from Tanagura City. Most of them already had their own Fashion Plates, who held their dress trails or tailcoats, or carried them easily on palanquins, centralized across their shoulders. Some sang pretty songs only their masters could hear, and all of them managed utmost obedience in every movement, from their limbs to their dead, blank eyes.</p><p>Those that didn’t have their own Plate offered up their own bought people to sacrifice for knighthood. Royalty themselves would never give up their own already pampered lives, but they could pay for someone to take their place, with the promise that<em> they </em>would be the ones to take the Plate, and the Knights will have them once in a while. To Iason, it was the stupidest of arrangements, but he also knew that most of these people were taken from the streets and gutters and jails, and they would do anything to never return.</p><p>Iason then passed the middle-crust, heavily populated by those of Midastown, but still outnumbered by the travelers, merchants, and the poorest of royalty from around the world. Many of them worked solely at Summer Games in this season, hoping to snag a Plate. They enticed him with beautiful jewelry, and beautiful people.</p><p>During the Summer Games, the Plates up for sale were allowed to choose one candidate, whom they joined until the candidate actually won Knighthood, or lost. Most Plates simply chose the first person to give them something they liked or have always wanted- candied apples were the most popular. Iason saw a Plate he was raised with stop and choose a woman who offered a box of those apples. She didn’t have the build for Knighthood- she was pregnant even- but she gave the Plate a dress and a child to hold.</p><p>There were those like that, who wished to spoil a Plate, just for the day. The woman shooed away the Carpet, and threw a slipper at a nearby Sentinel.</p><p>Iason thought, briefly, that if things didn’t work out, he’ll find someone like that, just for the day. He’s always wanted a candy apple.</p><p>He did see rare fortunate Fashion Plates, who manned the inventory or advertised with signs or beautiful singing for everyone to hear, in comfortable clothing or in indulgent laps. In particular he saw Reyson, who chose randomly a man named Tibarn. Reyson had been born uncommonly weak for a… creature… and so was exceedingly popular in the Games of last year, but Tibarn won him in the end. Tibarn had no desire, or need, to do anything to Reyson that he didn’t want done. Even more fortunately, Tibarn’s particular set of skills made him an ‘on-call Knight’. Instead of wasting away his talent on patrol, they called him in for specific missions. The two of them spent their days roaming with a mercenary group helping those less fortunate than themselves.</p><p>Lucky bastard.</p><p>“I promise you that you’ll have only three people a day, beautiful,” said some man, waving a delicious looking, delicious smelling candied apple.</p><p>Iason knew that if there could be three, there could be five one day, ‘just once’. This was the lot for most of them, and kingdoms the world over made sure it stayed that way.</p><p>The atmosphere of Ceres could be felt several tents away. Louder, happier, and friendlier than all the other places, a Plate could find many a sympathetic ear in Ceres, but first they had to go through the wall of sentinels and merchants and royalty who aimed to maintain the status quo.</p><p>They blocked Iason and Daryl now.</p><p>“You’re Iason, right? You killed my cousin a decade ago,” a sentinel looking much like the man he killed a decade ago blocked his path, and a round of his buddies circled him and Daryl off.</p><p>Iason’s collar prevented him from touching anyone who didn’t want to be touched. Their standing there made it impossible for him to move even one step further.</p><p>Although fully capable, Daryl kept his hands to himself as well. Iason couldn’t die; Daryl very much could.</p><p>“It was an accident I made as a child. I apologize for any suffering I have caused.”</p><p>Iason kept his eyes downward. The sooner he enraptured these idiots with his half-hearted wiliness, the sooner he can get into Ceres territory. At five of the dial, a bell will ring, and if he hadn’t convinced the mongrel to accept the candidacy, a random person around him would be chosen. He’d rather starve.</p><p>Mr. Cousin pressed forward. Most non-Plates were smaller than the Plates themselves, most barely reaching their collars, but this man with his giant horns and big button nose stood eye-level.</p><p>“Don’t look very apologetic.”</p><p>“I am sorry for that as well.”</p><p>Mr. Cousin elbowed a buddy to the right. “Don’t they say that when Iason puts its mind to it, it can be downright persuasive?”</p><p>His buddy nodded. “That’s what they say.”</p><p>“So I can’t trust its words, but I can trust action. Kneel, Iason, show me how sorry you are.”</p><p>Iason bristled and said in as polite a voice his tight throat could manage: “I’d rather not.”</p><p>“You’d <em>rather </em>not?”</p><p>Daryl intervened in his demure voice, “My good Sir, I mean no offence when I say that you will be putting this Plate in the position of being held against his will. As I am sure you are aware, he cannot fight back to escape if he wanted to.”</p><p>The cousin took Iason by the hair, wrapping it round his wrist slowly. It didn’t hurt, and as long as the man didn’t pull with force, the hair pulling proved nothing more than a minor nuisance.</p><p>“You mean like this? He can’t fight back?”</p><p>“Yes, like that,” said Daryl evenly.</p><p>“Why would he want to leave me anyway? What’s wrong with me?”</p><p>“Nothing personal. You are not his type.”</p><p>“Type! This piece of porcelain has a type! What is it, half-rat, half-maggot here from the crotch of Dana Bahn?”</p><p>Daryl answered with what Iason and he had planned long ago, when Iason had risked it all showing the Carpet the Guardian stone: “There is a specific sort of candied apple made in Ceres, and Iason wants it. The man who he saw carrying it was also very dark, striking, brash. He saw a resemblance in him.”</p><p>“A porcelain Plate finding resemblance in a dark mongrel! That’s fucking rich!”</p><p>His buddy muttered, “It sounds like he’s talking about Riki.”</p><p>At that name, the lot of them froze.</p><p>“Don’t you still owe him money?” Mr. Cousin whispered, letting Iason go.</p><p>“Yea.”</p><p>“Why are you incapable of raising fifty gold pieces?”</p><p>“Because I owe him five hundred… I thought I could beat him in arm-wrestling.”</p><p>“Fucking idiot, you know he’s stronger than he looks.”</p><p>“But he’s so fucking small and cute!”</p><p>Iason gasped. Could it be?</p><p>Rolling his eyes, Mr. Cousin moved forward, forcing Iason backwards away from him. “C’mon, let’s try to move this Plate somewhere easier to hold. Don’t wanna run into Riki and Bison Merchandise.”</p><p>So, they were planning to hold him. He should have run when he had the chance! Well, none of these bastards had Cryptic stones, and that was the only thing that could stop him. He moved away, pushing against the magic of the collar so that inevitably the sentinel in his way could feel it.</p><p>Mr. Cousin yelled at him, “Stop it, boy!”</p><p>“Boy?” Iason taunted. “What happened to ‘porcelain’? Or do you prefer men? I can fold myself that way, you know.” The sentinel fell backwards.</p><p>Iason dodged an annoying hand reaching for his hair, and that’s when the lot of them began to work together. The one he pushed over reached for his legs, which he jumped over with a flutter of his feet. Mr. Cousin grabbed his hand with all the strength of a feather, and Iason slipped out easily. Mr. Debt charged at him for a bear hug. That allowed him an opening- if Ms. On-the-side didn’t grab him by the tail with both hands and pulled with all her strength, which was just enough to be painful and make him freeze. Mr. On-the-side then grabbed his wrists and pulled harder and between the two of them with his sensitive limbs, Iason stopped moving. He was stronger than all of them put together, but everyone who’s ever wanted a Plate, which was most of the universe, knew how to move them to keep them from moving.</p><p>This little setback won’t keep him from giving them hell all day.</p><p>It was a while before Mr. On-the-side begged, “He… Just… Won’t… Stop… Fighting!” A pause. “Gods! It’s only three-of-the-dial!”</p><p>“We can poke out his eyes again, but be more careful?” Mr. Debt tried.</p><p>Ms. On-the-side patted her arm padded in a sling- a new addition after a foolish dare. “I’m not gonna be the one to do it. I don’t want to go that high in the air ever again. Any volunteers?”</p><p>Iason heard nothing. He had one eye closed, as the other one was almost healed and he needed to focus for the cornea. This wasn’t the first time he’s had an eye or two removed; it was one of the few places that was completely defenseless on his body. It was annoying to heal, though, requiring a certain amount of effort for the complex intricacies. </p><p>Three-of-the-dial. It was already possible that it would have taken all day to find that one man, and now he only had two hours? Iason had thought his reputation would precede him and people would think twice about him, but he had underestimated his value as a Plate. But he got all the way to Ceres’ area!</p><p>He won’t give up! He will be blinded again if needed! He’ll lose everything of himself!</p><p>“Oh, Gods, he’s getting up.”</p><p>“Oh, Gods, his Carpet is back with him!”</p><p>Daryl had gone? When? Where?</p><p>Who’s him?</p><p>“Do you have the money for him?”</p><p>“Five hundred gold pieces? No!”</p><p>The Riki they were speaking of before? If they can get into a bout, he would be able to escape and find the little mongrel from before.</p><p>Iason heard the sultry voice of a confident man: “La Tanga! Chofis! And if that isn’t Teniente with a whole broken arm! And you is…Waka! You’ve paid me back in full, Waka. I ‘preciate that.”</p><p>“Of course, Riki. Happy to do business with you. How’s Maxie and the Bisons?” The cheesy deference would have made Iason roll his eyes if they were healed. Riki terrified them so much, Iason could feel them pulling away from their covetous circle around him.</p><p>“Boss is fine as wine. Can’t say the same for Chofis and Teniente there. Chofis, you know you owe me five-hundred?”</p><p>Chofis swallowed audibly. “I know… I don’t have it just yet. I need a little longer.”</p><p>The thick smell of a mongrel with the blood of many races.</p><p>The intoxicating smell of a man who’s been working hard all day in the sun.</p><p>The heady smell of a person who spent a pretty penny on making sure he smelled as good as possible. It would be hard to resist such blatant provocation to the senses.</p><p>From right where that invigorating scent originated, a flat voice, “A little longer? Nah. That’s not gonna happen, sorry to say. Pray remind me when this debt occurred.”</p><p>“About a year ago,” Chofis mumbled.</p><p>“Right. A whole goddamn year. If you can’t get it in a year, it’s not worth it. You might be dead soon, being a Knight and all, and I want my money. Just give me all you have and let’s see if we have enough. Teniente, we don’t have to have a long-ass conversation that will come to no fruition, do we?”</p><p>Teniente must have nodded in silence, because Iason could only hear money being collected, the clinking of coins, not all of them gold pieces, even a few coppers. Surely, they wouldn’t insult Riki by adding copper pieces to their dept.</p><p>“This all the two of you got, for real? Between two Plate sentinels, y’all could only scrounge up less than the lesser of y’all’s debt? Unacceptable.”</p><p>“We…We have this Plate!”</p><p>La Tanga or Waka disagreed: “The hell y’all do! We all own this Plate!”</p><p>Riki interrupted, “I don’t give a fuck about this Plate. They’re not fucking guaranteed. I’mma have to run this whole circus for a chance at ‘em.”</p><p>They’re? ‘Em?</p><p>“Cash money? That’s guaranteed. Now, here’s your last chance. Between the two of you, there is at least a thousand pieces. Get creative, or I’ll take everything you got. You know I will.”</p><p>Two tight voices answered, “Yes, Riki.”</p><p>“Well, c’mon, think. Where you gonna make that money with what you got?”</p><p>Iason’s right eye was fully healed. Now he needed to focus on the left, make sure the pupil healed straight, or else it wouldn’t dilate and constrict normally. He kept both eyes closed in concentration.</p><p>“Our armor?” Teniente shook her leather and steel.</p><p>“Hmph.” Riki dismissed with annoyance. “What happens in a fight with second-hand armor? You’re dead? Nah, I don’t need that discolorin’ business like that.”</p><p>“I can give my lower half, and he can give his upper half. There’s gonna to be enough extras and it won’t be nearly so difficult as a whole new suit of armor.”</p><p>The offer on the table rested.</p><p>Riki said finally, “No. Too much risk. You know what, I have other matters to attend to and shit-” What a mouth! “-so perhaps you can borrow from a friend here, or here, and then you can owe them, but at least they get to see your dumb faces everyday instead of once a year.”</p><p>La Tanga or Waka laughed at the suggestion. “I don’t have fifteen hundred coins of any type. Not like I would’ve given it to some mongrel anyway.”</p><p>A tick later Riki’s scent disappeared.</p><p>A gasping, “I didn’t mean it! Put me down!” sputtered from where the scent landed.</p><p>Iason’s sight, now that both eyes have healed completely, returned to him and gave a clear view of the circumstances. A dark man a full head shorter than the sentinels had one of them up by the neck, using just one arm to keep him up there. His own neck was completely fluffed with shining black fur, and so were his ankles and wrists. Iason couldn’t tell if the hair atop his head belonged under the fur umbrella, but he had catlike ears obviously covered in fur, and shining black horns behind them. Small, flightless wings and two interwoven tails slowly brushing side to side confirmed the man’s identity. He wore the black leathers belonging to Ceres merchants, lined with gold, showcasing a bit of stature along with style.</p><p>“Sir Riki,” Daryl called.</p><p>Riki looked over his shoulder, arresting Iason’s confidence as he kept their gazes level. So black and sharp!</p><p>“Oh, right, this is what Daryl wanted in exchange. I’ll never go back on my word. Let’s see.”</p><p>Riki shortened the distance between them- yes, it was him! It was the little mongrel! He was still vastly smaller than he was, but most people were, but he was a <em>baby</em>. And his itty-bitty horns! Iason had enormous horns from the forward middle of his head; they went straight upwards and swerved backwards in a curve to shoot behind him. Riki’s were no bigger than his ears! If they weren’t such an ebony color reflecting the smallest amount of light, they would’ve been unnoticeable.</p><p>“Why you lookin’ at me like that?” Riki demanded.</p><p>“You’re just…” How could he put it? Might as well be honest: “So cute!</p><p>Riki’s eyes widened while the lot of them quieted.</p><p>“Cute?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>Hands on his hips, Riki now clicked his teeth. “Not handsome or intimidating?” he asked.</p><p>“I’m sure if I squinted, I’ll see that, but at the moment? Alas.”</p><p>Riki looked at Daryl.</p><p>The Carpet shrugged, “As I’ve told you, he may not act in ways most becoming of a Fashion Plate.”</p><p>“He ain’t becoming at all,” muttered Riki. “Okay, lemme see the stone.”</p><p>“The stone?” Iason asked lightly.</p><p>“Daryl told me you’re lookin’ for the owner of a Guardian stone you found. You’ll choose him to be a candidate if he has the candy apples you’re lookin’ for, right? I came along ‘cause he told me he found idiots who still owe me money. So here I am. Lemme see the stone and see if I can place who it belongs to.”</p><p>“You… You can tell by looking?”</p><p>Riki grinned smugly. “I can do a lot of things other people can’t.”</p><p>Iason wondered if Riki knew the true extent of his abilities, or if anyone outside Ceres knew of them. As he pondered these thoughts briefly, Daryl took the stone from the crown, pulling aside the strands of his blond hair. Iason worried… It would be exceedingly dangerous for anyone to know that Riki could break the ancient magic that lead Ceres children to a life of forced servitude. He wouldn’t be here if anyone knew, though.</p><p>The stone free, Riki clutched it in his hand and roamed his eyes over the patterns and glowing spots.</p><p>“What in the hell…”</p><p>He flipped the stone over once, twice, thrice- he put the stone up to the sun to get a better look at the inner designs- he covered it with his palms to block out excess light to see the true glows which would usually be blocked by brighter sources. After he was good and done, he flipped the stone in the air, grin now bigger than ever.</p><p>“This is mine!”</p><p>“’Tis yours?”</p><p>“It is! Sorry to disappoint you. I can find you a merchant that might be interested in Knighthood, if you want, but I’ll be taking my stone back.”</p><p>Iason frowned. “What do you mean?”</p><p>Riki chuckled, “You haven’t been lookin’ for some Ceres mongrel all this time, have you? You were gonna look for who he worked for? But my boss don't see no fresh food.”</p><p>Mongrel! He called himself mongrel! Iason supposed it was okay for them to say it self-deprecatingly. That made sense.</p><p>“So you have no means of getting brown apples?”</p><p>“You mean caramel apples? Sure, I can get you some. I can get you a ton.”</p><p>“Then I’m looking for you.”</p><p>Riki looked at him. The sentinels looked at him. A few busybodies keeping a corner eye out for entertainment now looked at him. People who saw people looking at him looked at him.</p><p>Riki then burst out laughing. “What a joke! I don’t know how you say that kind of stuff with a straight face.”</p><p>“I am not joking,” Iason told him with the same straight face.</p><p>More looking.</p><p>Daryl clapped his hands together once, announcing in an inappropriately loud voice, “Congratulations, Sir Riki of Ceres for your candidacy for Knighthood of Amoi. If you are interested, I am for sale, or perhaps you able to direct me to someone suitable monetarily?”</p><p>Riki’s mouth flapped silently, and he pointed a shaking finger at Daryl. “How much?”</p><p>“At least five thousand gold.”</p><p>“Ok.”</p><p>“O…Ok?”</p><p>Now Iason joined the intense staring as Riki pulled his coin purse from his belt. From within the obviously magicked confines, he took a thousand-coin box, then a second, then third, fourth, fifth.</p><p>“I’m… I’m sorry… I do not trust…” Daryl looked at the small fortune stacked in his grasp, stammering, until choking out, “Sir Riki, I will be robbed as soon as I am out of your sight. You do not need to pay me at this moment. There will be Summer Game proctors who will record candidates and take money for Carpets such as myself.”</p><p>“Ah. Ok,” Riki said once more, dropping the boxes back in his purse unceremoniously.</p><p>That amount of money… That amount of magic for an endless purse… If he wasn’t so obviously a mongrel from Ceres, there wouldn’t be a single soul who would believe he was anything less than royalty.</p><p>“Alright, so… Do you guys come back with me?” Riki asked uncertainly, all bravado disappeared into the ether as he seemingly tried to reconcile his view of life with this sudden turn in events.</p><p>“If that is what you wish, Sir Riki. It is also quite in the norm for us to return to the sentinels. I would… inform you that they will not feed either of us or give us drink.”</p><p>In other words, if one doesn’t find themselves a proxy, they would be quite famished by the five.</p><p>“All right. I understand.” Riki let out a quick breath. “Follow me.”</p><p>He made it! He actually made it! The little boy has grown up so finely, and he possessed wealth and strength to his name and body. He seemed polite, referring to his sex in vagaries so, and knew some modicum of modesty when presented with an unbelievable opportunity. How many would have jumped onto the chance for a Plate, no questions asked? Hell, four people nearly forced themselves for candidacy and they already had careers as sentinels.</p><p>It was altogether a terrible shame that he remembered nothing about him. Iason remembered the Abis sentinels talking about the Ceres children not remembering upon returning home, and Riki suddenly surrendered his Guardian stone with advice saying, ‘If I forgets’.</p><p>So he forgot.</p><p>All for the better, Iason decided.</p><p>The people they passed by had trouble focusing on either Riki, who had popularity and recognition, or Iason, who was a Plate for gods’ sake. More shockingly to Iason, no one attempted to take him away from Riki, or block his path, or even seem to humor the thought.</p><p>Conversations were more like: “You got yourself a Plate! Will you still be working with Bison?”</p><p>“I didn’n know you’da wanted to be’an’night!”</p><p>“You’re the only Ceresi who can do it, Riki!”</p><p>Still, Riki’s own thoughts held the entirety of his attention. Even as those who obviously had ‘business’ with him scurried away as quickly as possible, and even as those who didn’t have their best interests at heart stared at Iason with conniving eyes, Riki ignored them all, setting the trail through to their… small home? Set up with brick and open squares lacking the glass for proper windows, but still, who among them had the ability to manipulate the earth with such finesse and celerity?</p><p>The doorway had a black curtain already hung up on nail. The three of them entered.</p><p>Inside the layout of a merchant’s shop stretched out as far and wide and high as the house itself, with shelves and their merchandise all in orderly groupings. Several members of the Bison group were with even bigger groups. All of them turned to their little group.</p><p>“You’re selling the charms of a Plate!”</p><p>“And what a gorgeous Plate this is!”</p><p>“Five hundred gold!”</p><p>“You fuckin’ idiot! That’s nothin’ at all! A thousand!”</p><p>A bellow, enhanced by magic, strung everyone straight and absolutely silent, “SILENCE! WE DO NOT DEAL IN PLATES! WE WILL NOW BE TAKING A MIDDAY REST. ALL CLIENTS SHALL LEAVE AT THIS TIME.”</p><p>A caramel man ushered out all remaining clients, even as they tried to keep a conversation about Iason’s price or lack thereof, and the men who remained switched their gazes quickly from Iason to Daryl to Riki, and back again across all three.</p><p>Iason returned the treatment, eyeing first the long-haired, long-eared man with eyes of molten maple. His front teeth poked over his lower lip, and his gaze lingered on Riki the longest, and Riki in turn seemed to try to avoid his gaze. There was hare in his bloodline, but one never knows when it comes to the Village of Orphans that Ceres was. But those adorable teeth!</p><p>The man next to him wore glasses of a dark shade, obviously owing to his reptilian features. From what Iason could see, his somewhat slim figure was owed to an animal better suited for damp darkness rather than Amoian summer sun. Iason saw dry patches; poor guy was either molting or had a sunburn. After a molt, he would get a sunburn anyway.</p><p>Head of blond that belonged underneath a helmet, but muscles that definitely needed freedom, this next man was a feast for the eyes. Iason couldn’t place his heritage- more like he remembered what the animal looked like but was never told the name. Small squinting eyes and full teeth with a big amused smile. Iason could smell his earthiness even from several arms’ lengths’ away.</p><p>Iason saw the impressive antlers of the blue-haired man first. Then he saw his blue hair, then he saw the patches of blue hair across his bare chest and down his stomach down to his… Well, down. He gave him a confused wave, and Iason answered with is own cordial wave, noticing the man’s starkly yellow eyes flash down to his genitals every now and again.</p><p>The man with the voice was a bear, in every sense of the word, and the straightforwardness of his lineage proved a non-Ceresian childhood, but here he was with all these Ceres youths. His muscles, teeth, fangs, fur, all big, big, big. He stood as tall as Iason, but why consider tallness when the other physical aspects were much more apparent- and useful.</p><p>“What is this, Riki?” the man demanded.</p><p>“Hey, Mr. Max, this is, uh, Iason. Oh, and Daryl. The Plate is Iason and they chose me as a candidate.”</p><p>Mr. Max’s bushy eyebrows rose against his thick hairline. “I know you, Riki, so I believe you, but, one moment.” He looked at Iason, whose own thin eyebrows matched those before him. “Iason, any particular reason you chose Riki? He’s Ceresi. Ceresian Knights are usually chosen after dutiful training from youth- by people other than Fashion Plates. Riki’s never trained to be a Knight.”</p><p>“I was looking for a Ceres youth who had been selling apples- caramel, as Riki has told me. He dropped his Guardian stone.”</p><p>Riki took out his stone to show them, and their gasps of shock fluttered across the room.</p><p>Except no such sound left the rabbit.</p><p>“You must have been practicing that excuse for a long time,” he said.</p><p>“Excuse…” Iason cleared his throat, which suddenly seemed to constrict. “Excuse me?”</p><p>“You’re lying. It’s a lie you’ve said only a few times, so that’s how I guessed you practiced it.” The man crossed his arms. “But I can tell you mean no harm in the lie. Do you wanna say the truth?”</p><p>Iason sniffed. “It is the truth.”</p><p>“This is the first time you are lying for that lie.”</p><p>“How in the world can you hear that? I’ve never heard of a rabbit race able to hear lies.”</p><p>The man shrugged. “Neither have I. Thanks for confirming.”</p><p>A chortle from Daryl made Iason flush with embarrassment. “Fine! I stole it!”</p><p>Exasperated, Daryl murmured, “Now you’ve lost the chance to end this with a semblance of pride.”</p><p>“Shush!”</p><p>Ears flickering, the man informed the rest of the curious men, “He’s still lying.”</p><p>“I don’t remember!” Iason yelled, unsure why he was lying, but knowing there was no way he could start saying the truth! The whole story was a silly child’s dream, and here he was trying to chase it down the stream!</p><p>“Wait.” Riki turned to Iason, gripping the stone. “If you didn’t find it, and you didn’t steal it… Someone gave it to you. Who gave it to you?”</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>“Your face is scarlet. We’re trying to die fabric that color actually. Guy?”</p><p>“He knows,” his friend answered.</p><p>“C’mon, it can’t get anymore embarassin’, can it? Unless I gave it to you as a kid and you believed I could- no way!”</p><p>Iason couldn’t control his expression.</p><p>“Guy!” Riki grabbed the taller man by the shoulders. “I gave my Guardian stone to Iason.”</p><p>Ears flickering, shock registering slow, Guy whispered, “I hear no lies.”</p><p>“I… What? I made a promise to be his Knight?”</p><p>Eyes rolling, Guy said, “You can’t ask a question.”</p><p>Eyes also rolling, Riki corrected his verbiage, “I made a promise to be his Knight.”</p><p>“You had to be a kid! You lost it years ago!”</p><p>“I was a kid when I made the promise.”</p><p>“Yes!”</p><p>“I was… thirteen?”</p><p>Iason put a stop to their search: “You were ten.”</p><p>“Ten!” everyone yelled.</p><p>The serpent laughed aloud. “You were so small then. People kept thinking you were a toddler!”</p><p>“How did you even get all the over there to the Tanagura side?” asked the muscular blond.</p><p>“You must have been too small for anyone to notice you close to the Plates’ tent," Guy thought aloud.</p><p>Iason couldn’t bear it any longer. “I understand! I am a fool! If you don’t want to be a Knight, then I will find someone else! Someone else who could-” Iason sucked in a sound that definitely was not a sob. “-someone else who could make me feel even a fourth of how I felt that day. Why bring me all the way here just to humiliate me so?”</p><p>He turned away and walked through the curtain, stomping away with blurred vision. He didn’t even know where to start looking.</p><p>At least he tried! Yes. There was a minute consolation with that.</p><p>A hand grabbed- hot! A hot hand grabbed his wrist and turned him around.</p><p>Riki took his other wrist in his hot hold. “Hey. I didn’t bring you here to make you feel bad.”</p><p>“No?”</p><p>“Of course not. If I was gonna refuse, I woulda done it as soon as ya chose me.”</p><p>“…Then?”</p><p>Riki sighed, scratching the back of his head. “Do I really have to spell it out?”</p><p>A new voice interrupted them: “Riki of Ceres?”</p><p>The two of them looked at this new man answering with the same name:</p><p>“Django!”</p><p>“<em>Django</em>.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I don't know why I particularly dislike Django from AnK, but I do.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Up and Down, Up and Down</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Desperate attempts to separate Iason and Riki are all for naught, for they were already entangled in a far more dangerous web.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I planned for this chapter to have one of the Summer Games. Sorry about all the talky-talking lol. I've been meaning to say that, if you haven't noticed, the chapter titles are little quotes from A Midsummer's Night's Dream.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Iason’s blatant dislike of the man bled into the silence, making it longer and more awkward than Riki expected his yearly reunification with Django to be. Django has always been the brother the lot of them never had, and Django seemed to favor Riki in particular. Always pushing him to never let anyone get to him, most of all himself. It was a day of great celebration when Django received not just a candidacy to be a Knight, but the position itself and two Plates to go with him all at once.</p>
<p>If all his friends could have been Knights, Riki would have accepted the idea of following Django’s path.</p>
<p>That and he had an inkling that Guy didn’t like Django for some reason.</p>
<p>Now, Iason obviously didn’t.</p>
<p>Django ran towards him and picked him up, as he usually did, and Riki forgot his momentary confusion at anyone’s actions.</p>
<p>Django had long eyes, pretty suave if Riki had anything to say about it, and triangular ears bigger than even Guy’s. He also sported a short bushy tail with fur around his wrists and ankles, which made it clear to the layman he grew up in Ceres. Although to Riki, he didn’t smell like other Ceresians, but he could never explain how or what he meant by that, but he was never wrong.</p>
<p>“Django! Whatchu doin’ here?”</p>
<p>“<em>What </em>am I doing here? Well, my friend, I heard you have gotten the attention of THE most intractable Fashion Plate in existence. Unless it chose one of your friends?”</p>
<p>Django looked around and just as Riki was about to point out that the rest of them were inside, Iason said, “I did not choose one of his friends. If they exist, they seem to be nowhere in the vicinity. Too bad you cannot appeal to the crowd to talk some sense into Riki, or whatever mission you say you have that conceals your ulterior motive.”</p>
<p>Django sighed. “See what I’m talking about? It’s antagonistic. If you haven’t witnessed it yet, it’s because it’s hiding it from you.” One slightly furred hand landed on Riki’s shoulder. “I fully expected them to keep Iason a few more years for training before putting it into a Summer Game. Then I wouldn’t have to be here on business on my day off.”</p>
<p>“If only.” Iason huffed derisively.</p>
<p>Riki felt a bit pulled in two directions- one side was his friend and the other would have a good reason to dislike someone- right? All things considered, he had no idea what kind of person this Iason was, other than someone who was a bit of a romantic, with their own pride, with an unbelievable set of what could be childbearing hips…</p>
<p>Focus!</p>
<p>“What do you have against Django, Iason? He’s one of my closest friends from Ceres.”</p>
<p>“As a Knight at his post across the country?” Iason asked lightly.</p>
<p>“He doesn’t have a post. Fighting for Amoi isn’t exactly his specialty.”</p>
<p>“And yet… I am certain his specialty is exactly what this country wants.”</p>
<p>“Let’s cut this short,” Django interjected, almost angrily. “Do you want to be a Knight? After all this time, now you want to be a Knight! I can make you a Knight. Right now. Special post like me.”</p>
<p>Riki sniffed.</p>
<p>He could smell a deal, but he could taste how it could be too good to be true. For his conscience, at least.</p>
<p>“Sorry, Django. This is personal so-”</p>
<p>Iason gripped his arm, a grip so hard he felt pain piercing through his bones. If they squeezed any harder, they would most definitely break.</p>
<p>Django put a hand on his hip, smiling his usual adorable smirk.</p>
<p>“What do you mean ‘personal’?”</p>
<p>“They say they want me.”</p>
<p>“That’s it?” A snicker from the man made Riki flush a bit. “It flutters its pretty eyes at you and you’re willing to risk life and limb, plus perhaps the rest of your life for that?”</p>
<p>“Can you stop calling them ‘it’? They’re people.”</p>
<p>The look in Django’s eyes flickered dangerously. Riki’s never seen it before, but it raised his hackles at once.</p>
<p>“They’re Plates, Riki. They volunteered, just like Carpets. It’s not our fault that they want to go back on the sworn oaths they’ve made last minute.”</p>
<p>“Well, you know how we just have to agree to disagree about that.”</p>
<p>Django snapped his fingers at Iason, raising Riki’s hackles miles higher. “Iason. You volunteered to be a Plate, right?”</p>
<p>“Yes, Django.” Iason’s answer was immediate and without emotion.</p>
<p>“See?”</p>
<p>Riki frowned. “I see someone who is keeping his options open, and keeping himself safe from someone who doesn’t seem him as a person.” The hand on his wrist became soft, became a trembling hold. “What does it matter? If he drives me crazy, that’s my problem.”</p>
<p>“It’s everyone’s problem if you let it roam free.”</p>
<p>“Free from what they volunteered for.”</p>
<p>Django stepped forward with every hair raised and tail extended. “Don’t get smart with me!”</p>
<p>Iason leaned forward and whispered into his ear, “He. I go by ‘he’.”</p>
<p>Somehow fueled by being given that information, Riki matched Django’s stance, snarling, “Did I strike a nerve? Ya know you ain’t even makin’ a good case for yaself. He’s somehow a volunteer who changed his mind last minute, but you say he’s the most intractable Fashion Plate in existence. You said he needed <em>a few more years of training</em>, your words. Which means he’s been a thorn in y’all’s side, for at least a few years, yea?”</p>
<p>Django crossed his arms, smiling genially once more. Riki found the quick changes to be a bit unsettling.</p>
<p>“And what’s wrong with me, huh?” Riki demanded before Django said anything… convincing.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong with you?”</p>
<p>“I don’t believe anybody in charge of him didn’t know what you know. He needed more training, right? People knew that this morning when he woke up, all along when they prepared to take him here, all day when he was walking across the grounds, all when he was with those sentinels for a few hours, but as soon as he is with me for all but twenty minutes, suddenly he’s not Knight material? What’s wrong with me?”</p>
<p>Django breathed deeply, once, twice.</p>
<p>“Tell me the truth, Riki. If he asked to be set free and on his own, would you let him go?”</p>
<p>“Now you use ‘he’,” muttered Iason.</p>
<p>“How about you tell me a truth, first, Django.” Riki swallowed. This was dangerous territory. He knew it, he knew it, he knew it… Mama Langeais told him.</p>
<p>Now that he thought about it, Langeais hated Django. She never said it, but it was obvious.</p>
<p>“Tell me the truth, Django. Carpets and Fashion Plates volunteer. They are not tricked into it. They are not kidnapped.”</p>
<p>Django’s visage warped.</p>
<p>Riki recognized him not.</p>
<p>“Why haven’t you made these statements in front of Guy?”</p>
<p>“I have. His ears bleed, and he never remembers the question.”</p>
<p>“It seems that is answer enough for you. Question answered.”</p>
<p>“Fair enough.” He did always kind of know. There was only one truth that would have been unacceptable, and the opposite would not be worth hiding. “But I am not the first or last person who could be a Knight, is a Knight, who would run off with a Plate. In fact, I heard that’s a pretty often occurrence, so often that I know that specific punishment is losing your Plate and getting twenty years added to your service term. So, what’s so special about me?”</p>
<p>Scoffing, Django shrugged. “We’re just trying to prevent such-”</p>
<p>“STOP LYING!” Iason let go of him, and Django backed away. “I know Amoi doesn’t want me for my gods-damned brain, but I ain’t stupid. You guys don’t want me to get a Fashion Plate. <em>Why</em>?”</p>
<p>Riki could hear the grounding of teeth.</p>
<p>Django came up close to them, and Iason hid behind Riki. Django answered after several seconds of staring at the ground: “You can have children with Plates, Riki.”</p>
<p>Riki barked out a laugh as Iason spat, “He lies!”</p>
<p>“Get Guy in hearing distance, and I’ll show you how it’s the truth.”</p>
<p>“He is nothing but a liar, Riki. We cannot have children with… We cannot… Perhaps my Carpet, if his genitals weren’t removed and smoothed down to a nondescript plane and he has the sex for children, I suppose. Tell me, Django, did you help Daryl get to where he was?  When Katze was killed a decade ago, I had a new young Carpet nearly the next day. You had to be still in Ceres for that time.”</p>
<p>“Shut it, Plate. You are not yet in the clear. Don’t want to jeopardize your safety just yet.”</p>
<p>“I am not safe if I am not with Riki.”</p>
<p>“You are not safe with him, either.”</p>
<p>Riki stopped that bullshit right there: “Explain what you mean, Iason. ‘For that time’?”</p>
<p>“Shut your gods-damn trap, Plate. I’ll melt you for the next year.”</p>
<p>Iason’s shaking hands returned to his skin; they had lost all the extreme heat they held previously, proof that he had more fear than his words suggested.</p>
<p>“I know not the full extent of Django’s specialties-”</p>
<p>“Plate!”</p>
<p>“-but among them is the ability to change his outward age. Every now and again, when they need new Carpets or quick Knight replacements, or just some special pets, they send him in for a few years to help convince people to volunteer.”</p>
<p>Riki stared up at Iason, seeing clear blue skies, and the atmosphere behind Iason’s halo of blond hair.</p>
<p>“Daryl is no older than me… If Daryl was… convinced… ten years ago… Wait, is that all you fucking do in Ceres?!” Riki felt it all coming together, so succinctly, an awful recognition of the full breath of the depravity Django may possess. “You come to get Carpets? Or gather some Plate-free Knights? All that shit you said about me, being special, or becoming the best Knight to live on in Amoian legend, that’s just some shit you spill every time you see an effective meat shield!”</p>
<p>The expression on Django’s face cleared, like the quickest thunderstorm. His smile and charm came on, like a lamp, and Riki suddenly felt foolish he ever thought the man was genuine.</p>
<p>“I meant it for you, Riki. You think your ability to have children with Plates stems from luck?”</p>
<p>“You’re still going on about that madness? You know Riki cannot have my children.”</p>
<p>“I know he can.”</p>
<p>“Tell me, Riki, what other specialties does he possess? Anything that can work well with your specialties?”</p>
<p>“Doesn’t matter.” Riki backed away. “I’mma be his Knight, Django.”</p>
<p>“Really!” Django stomped towards him. “You’d pull our friendship apart over its lies?”</p>
<p>His emotions were almost touched, but Riki remembered that it wasn’t all lies. If he kept his focus, he won’t let Django get to him. That’s what he needed to do.</p>
<p>“If you even sort of treated him like a person, I might have been convinced.”</p>
<p>Django shrugged. “He’s not a person, Riki. He’s a monster of the highest degree.”</p>
<p>“Well. I am the monster of the highest degree, too.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>Riki rolled his eyes. “I can have his babies, right?”</p>
<p>The slanted eye twitched.</p>
<p>“Hard to keep all the lies straight?”</p>
<p>“Riki. We can’t just let you have monster babies. It’s just the way they work, and you just so happen to fit how they work. Same species not required.”</p>
<p>Easy solution then… “Alright… Take my balls.”  Riki pulled out a knife from his belt wrapped around his ribs, the sheathe warm against his spine.</p>
<p>Django huffed. “So you can snap my arm off?”</p>
<p>Riki pulled the belts from his pants, letting them drop to his ankles. Gods, was he going to do this? Sacrifice his ability to have kids for a beautiful man who was betting his entire life on a promise he made when he was a kid? Still, he was starting to find out certain truths, and the meaning behind these truths and the meaning behind those meanings.</p>
<p>He was ten when he made that promise. He remembered most of his tenth year. He remembered waking up in his bed and looking for his Guardian stone, not remembering ever letting it go when he was put to sleep. That wasn’t like him; that wasn’t like anyone in Ceres. If one lost the stone in Ceres, someone would try to find its owner, for it wouldn’t work with anyone else in the first place.</p>
<p>So he didn’t lose his Guardian Stone in Ceres. That fact was made all the more obvious by Iason ever having it. What didn’t make sense was why he couldn’t remember. There was no way he would have forgotten Iason’s face, much less giving him his Guardian Stone. Eighty percent of his abilities was him fighting monsters and local bandits after leaving the warded zones, or being pulled out there, unable to return the easy way with his stone.</p>
<p>Was he pulled to wherever they keep Plates? What did he see? A pretty face? He was ten, that must have been all he saw. What did Iason see? A baby! He had to have seen Riki hardly bigger than a watermelon! He couldn’t convince anyone that he could reach a jar of cookies. Perhaps he saw him lift a big rock? But Riki definitely, one hundred percent, honest to gods truth, did not want to be a Knight at the age of ten. He distinctly remembered not wanting to before he lost the stone, and it was the same after, and it’s been the same since, and he’s seen tons of Plates.</p>
<p>“Easy now,” murmured Iason. “I may not want your children, but that hefty girth of yours will have its uses.”</p>
<p>He has never <em>spoken </em>to a Plate. Surely Iason wasn’t talking like that at the age of ten, though. What they spoke about seemed to be knowledge only Iason was privy to, unless others were there.</p>
<p>It came to Riki abruptly. Django’s other specialties. He… could have been…</p>
<p>“Getting cold feet, Riki?” Django taunted. “Or blue balls, as it were?”</p>
<p>No babies. It’s okay. No babies. “People said I was the cutest baby in the universe.”</p>
<p>Iason chuckled, which stopped short. “You aren’t seriously thinking of doing it are you?”</p>
<p>“What happened to not harming the shaft?”</p>
<p>“I was merely helping you bluff!”</p>
<p>Riki took in a breath.</p>
<p>“No!”</p>
<p>Iason reached to stop him, and Riki turned, and, before he proved how his strength stopped short of a Plate’s, he activated the heat runes, stretched his scrotum taut, and sliced in one smooth move. He heard several screams of terror, then some sort of high-pitched whinny from heaven, and then felt a burn, a quick burn, then a longer burn. When he looked down next-</p>
<p>Three voices whispered, “Impossible.”</p>
<p>He had a pair of bleeding balls in hand. Another pair had regrown themselves between his legs.</p>
<p>Walking back slowly, eyes much narrower than Riki’s ever seen them, Django whispered, looking not at him, “You’re more emotional than I expected you to be. Good.” He turned on heel, didn’t look back.</p>
<p>That hurt the most. All those memories, all those emotions, all of that was a figment of his imagination, the illusion walking away without what it wanted, as usual.</p>
<p>A smack from Iason against his temple bowled him over his legs, trailing his pants.</p>
<p>“You foolish idiot! Would you deny your legacy over me? You have not won a Game! You do not know me at all! I understand you pity my situation but that should only get you so far! This is just like ten years ago! Coming after me, trying to help me… Help me see… Help me believe… Saying you will take me home… With you…”</p>
<p>Throwing away his unmentionables, Riki went to his two feet, half-heartedly complaining, “I chop off my balls and I get beat as thanks.”</p>
<p>“They grew back!”</p>
<p>“You recover damn quick.” He pulled up his pants, nodding to all the witnesses, before hurriedly pulling Iason inside Bison Merchandise with his clean hand.</p>
<p>Another smack, barely registered, then another, then another, and now it was just annoying.</p>
<p>Riki protected his head with his arms. “None of you can have my children! At least Iason has half a reason!”</p>
<p>“You cannot have my children, you complete dolt!”</p>
<p>“Uhm.”</p>
<p>That ‘uhm’. Riki recognized that ‘uhm’. That ‘uhm’ meant that he might not like the truth Guy wanted to share.</p>
<p>Iason cleared his throat. “Are you saying that conniving son of a bitch was telling the truth?”</p>
<p>Guy answered slowly, “He didn’t… know he was telling the truth.”</p>
<p>Many voices had no clue what sorcery he was speaking, most of all Riki.</p>
<p>“Okay, it’s a bit of a mess. He lies so damn much, it’s hard to keep it all straight.</p>
<p>“Let’s start kind of from the beginning. Iason, yes, you are not yet in the clear. However, you are very much safe with Riki. Seeing as I just saw him grow another set of balls, I can see how that might help. Still, that is taking into account that we’re comparing safety with Riki with safety with Django.”</p>
<p>Iason explained, “Basically, we merely know that Django would be very bad for me.”</p>
<p>“Right. Next.”</p>
<p>“He said he’ll melt me for the next year after that.”</p>
<p>“That’s a prophecy of the future, which I do not do.”</p>
<p>“Ah. I see.”</p>
<p>Norris whispered, “Iason’s so smart. I still don’t get what Guy means by that…”</p>
<p>Guy continued, “Everything Iason said about what Django does in Ceres is true.”</p>
<p>Arms crossed and mood soured, Sid said, “That’s why he always asked if we were around. He was trying to stay away from Guy.”</p>
<p>“He always has. I just thought he didn’t like me because I told Riki not to be a Knight- well, I know for certain that is part of the reason. But.” Guy looked Riki in the eyes. “All that stuff he said to you about you being special- it was the truth. He thinks you’re special, which is, as we can see, kind of on the correct side as well.”</p>
<p>Iason disagreed, “He was just as surprised as the two of us when they grew back.”</p>
<p>“He was. Which means…”</p>
<p>“Regeneration isn’t what makes Riki special… It’s his ability to have Plate children.”</p>
<p>“No- well- it’s complicated.” Guy rubbed his temples. “Shortest way to tell you without blowing Norris’ mind out his ears is… You know how Django said ‘I know he can’ when talking about Riki’s abilities that he literally tried to cut short? He was lying. He did not know you can- but you can.”</p>
<p>“That’s ridiculous,” Daryl finally chimed in. “He didn’t know about Riki’s regeneration or his ability to have Plate children. So what other reason could there possibly be?”</p>
<p>“There are many.” Iason stared at Guy. “Just not those.”</p>
<p>Guy nodded.</p>
<p>Riki remembered one: “One of his specialties is to become invisible.” He turned to Iason. “He saw me make that promise. He saw me grow up into the type of guy who would keep that promise… Still…”</p>
<p>“He…” Iason shook his head. “He believes you can keep it.”</p>
<p>“Take you home with me.”</p>
<p>“Half right,” Guy corrected. “Take him home. That’s it. Take Iason home.”</p>
<p>Iason structured his words carefully: “Django knows Riki forgot everything of that night. How could Riki possibly know how to take me home? I do not… I do… My home is Amoi. My home is Amoi.” Grabbing his collar, Iason went quiet. “But if Django believes in you… Then perhaps my childhood fantasy wasn’t so fanciful after all.”</p>
<p>Riki felt a stir of pride at those words. There was just a bit of peevishness that there seemed to be a whole world to him that he himself hasn’t visited, but the confidence in him was quite boosting to his ego.</p>
<p>Maxie asked from the table, “What about the rest, Guy?”</p>
<p>“The rest?” Guy seemed quite done.</p>
<p>“Iason being a monster. Riki and him being the same ‘type of monster’.”</p>
<p>“I cannot listen for the truth of… whatever you first asked. But the second is…. True… Gods… What are you, Iason?”</p>
<p>Iason’s mouth quivered, eyes slowly growing wider, and wider, but he simply turned away his face, and gripped his collar all the tighter.</p>
<p>“Are you under some sort of curse?” Norris asked, squinting in the area of Iason’s neck.</p>
<p>Luke said in disbelief, “Truly! You haven’t noticed that until now? Have you been following the conversation at all?”</p>
<p>“To be honest, not all the way. I am still very confused.”</p>
<p>Maxie drew himself up in a way that had all his employees turning to him.</p>
<p>“Django works for Amoi. From what it sounds like, Amoi wants Riki as a Knight, a Knight that can have Plate children for the future. Before, their only obstacles were Ceres and the protection of the Goddess of Orphans, and afterwards, they figured it would be better to have you willingly on their side.</p>
<p>“Django had been working in Ceres longer than we know, but Riki was truly a special project for him. If Riki is the same race as Plates, that means he cannot die by normal means and can at most be melted. I have a strong feeling that collars won’t work on him, or else they would have slapped it on him a long time ago.”</p>
<p>Riki suddenly remembered many gifts of necklaces from Django. Bracelets. Anklets. Crowns. He always tried them on, always politely refused them, as Madam Langeais always begged of him.</p>
<p>“Not for lack of trying,” Riki spoke angrily.</p>
<p>“I bet.” Maxie ruffled the hair around his horns. Then he ruffled Iason’s hair. “There’s no going back on this. They’ll have him as a Knight or no one will have him, even if he lets you go. They’ll try to melt you, Riki, until you’re obedient.”</p>
<p>“I am sure they tried the same trick on Iason. Didn’t seem to work.”</p>
<p>Guy took his hand. “Even if you win Iason. They won’t stop there.”</p>
<p>“Let me win first. Then we can worry about the next step.” He looked at his dearest friends, each in the eye. “I can do this alone.”</p>
<p>“Not gonna happen. Anyway, Django knows that a lot of people know that you can grow things back that don’t usually grow back.”</p>
<p>Sid added softly, “I won’t be surprised if there is less competition tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Let’s make sure there aren’t less of us.”</p>
<p>A voice outside the small building called, “Daryl! Riki of Ceres!”</p>
<p>Apparently, someone told the group of proctors that Daryl had already found someone to purchase the Carpet. The price dropped down to two thousand- Daryl had meant to scare Riki away from purchase, so that their situation didn’t look like Carpet and Plate working together to deliberately headhunt in Ceres. A lot of good that did.</p>
<p>After handing over the coin boxes, Riki received Daryl’s contract in return.</p>
<p>Then, because nothing this day could pass over smoothly, one of the proctors asked Daryl, “How do you feel?”</p>
<p>Face flat, the Carpet answered just the same, “I feel fine.”</p>
<p>“Sir Riki?”</p>
<p>Riki felt thick magic from the paper, as if something was coiled up and trapped in the thin strip. Thick, but nothing he couldn’t break with his bare hands, but he knew that was one of the many abilities even the most experienced of sorcerers did not possess. On the other hand, other than specific skills manufactured during training, and super strength and regeneration, Riki knew of no other Plate skills.</p>
<p>Riki flipped the paper between his hands. “Feels like some paper with some magic.”</p>
<p>“This is one of the few times we’ve even seen a Plate choose someone from Ceres.”</p>
<p>Riki smiled. “I’m as surprised as anyone.”</p>
<p>The proctor smiled. “I hope you take advantage of this privilege to make somewhat of a name for yourself.”</p>
<p>“And be a Knight, right?”</p>
<p>“Well. I wouldn’t set my hopes up so high.” The proctor patted his hand. “You’re a mongrel after all.”</p>
<p>With that, they left, narrowly avoiding any missing teeth from any blows from Riki.</p>
<p>“Looks like they shall be quite petty about this whole deal,” Daryl murmured at their retreating backs.</p>
<p>“It’s fine. C’mon, let’s get y’all some clothes.”</p>
<p>“You will buy him clothes? That will be quite the instigation.”</p>
<p>“I said y’all.”</p>
<p>“I wish to rest here, if you don’t mind.”</p>
<p>Riki didn’t, and he wondered if Daryl simply didn’t want to ‘instigate’ further. Only the most confident, or arrogant, would purchase clothing or more expensive gifts for a Plate they did not yet own, or for a Carpet, period. However, he was already in for the penny, so spending a pound here or there for fitting clothing and shoes was not too far from what he was already doing. Even better, he could get some work done while at it.</p>
<p>“Hey, May! How you doing for Day One?”</p>
<p>“Riki! If you’re here, Day One is a success. Are you really here to measure out your Plate at my store?” May bounced from behind her usual spot at the center table, which housed itself in the center tent. Her dress was much more modest than the previous times he’s seen her, with only three layers over her skirt and seventeen pink bows holding her ensemble together.</p>
<p>Riki took both her hands in a shake. “You have the best sales, May~”</p>
<p>“Oh, no, you will not trick me this time! I have no sales for you! I have fully-priced patterns in the most inordinate lengths!”</p>
<p>“Aw.” Riki leaned heavily against a post in mock sorrow. “Everyone is selling black so expensively this year. It’s the least popular color and yet they drove up the price.”</p>
<p>May reached up to pinch his nose. “You know as well as I do that Ashnard across the great rivers gallops around in a jet-black armor! His style is all the rage!”</p>
<p>“Did he now? It is?” Riki scratched his chin.</p>
<p>“And do you really want your Plate wearing black? At night wouldn’t it be hard to see if it decides to run off?”</p>
<p>“He,” Riki told her.</p>
<p>“Oh! Sorry. Right. He.”</p>
<p>“When did you start that particular practice, May? You weren’t such a believer before.”</p>
<p>Or was May yet another illusion?</p>
<p>Yet May had the decency to look ashamed. “My customers… They feel more comfortable with me maintaining the status quo, if you know what I mean.” Her soft brown eyes flickered at Iason. “Not every store can move wherever they wish with their employee able to set up a house anywhere.”</p>
<p>Riki sighed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to give you a hard time.”</p>
<p>She gave him a quick hug. “You’re a customer, too, aaaaaaand I think I do have a small discount for black cloth.” With puckered lips, Iason was given another onceover. “If you’re interested in some yellowish fabric pieces, I can give you a good price on that as well.”</p>
<p>“Lead the way, please.”</p>
<p>“Um… Is… Is he in pain?”</p>
<p>Riki turned to Iason, who looked a pebble’s throw from bursting into tears. Too prideful to put his head all the way down, too prideful to actually cry, his head hung halfway down with hands shaking at his sides.  Too anxious to hide it all.</p>
<p>“Don’t let that discount disappear on me, May.”</p>
<p>“I make no guarantees.”</p>
<p>Riki pulled Iason’s wrist, walking them both to a doldrum of a spot where the corner of several tents and lean-tos met, giving enough room for a couple persons, and a privacy not quite allowed anywhere else. Riki dropped his hands a few inches to hold Iason’s hands. He waited for the man to calm down.</p>
<p>Looking closely, Iason’s hair had vitality, and Riki spied both gold and white strands. No breeze blew, but sparks made strings flick. One such flick brought attention to Iason’s scales. Riki brought his face close to see individual scales no bigger than ants make up rows and rows. The rows ended inches short of the pinkest nipples in the universe. They looked soft, edible. Almost as much as his… penis? Labia? Riki knew that Plates could make it obvious about either one, but there was a single hump down there.</p>
<p>“Would you like to touch me?” Iason whispered.</p>
<p>Riki looked up into a calm face with reddish eyes.</p>
<p>“You want me to touch you?”</p>
<p>The Plate looked to the side. “Not particularly.”</p>
<p>“Then I don’t particularly want to touch you either.”</p>
<p>A small smile brightened Iason’s face. It fell a bit. “My apologies… I know I have made quite the scene, but I think I shall be going with Django.”</p>
<p>Not what he expected at all, Riki hissed, “After all this? What’s wrong?”</p>
<p>“Your friends. You. I brought all this upon us. How can I just trade your comfort for mine?” Iason hugged himself. “That shall make me no better than the rest of them.”</p>
<p>Riki had thought it before, but it came to him all the more clearly now- Iason was <em>so </em>his type. Granted, he wasn’t that picky, and he was more into doing his job well and staying strong, but when he had briefly entertained the thought of having a steady lover… A bit cute, a bit strong, a bit noble… A lot beautiful was icing on the cake.</p>
<p>“We’re all grown, Iason. It’s probably too late to make everyone safe, anyway.”</p>
<p>“‘Probably’ is the vital word. I’m sure if I prostrate myself enough and… behave… I can possibly guarantee your safety.”</p>
<p>“‘Possibly’ is the vital word,” Riki quipped.</p>
<p>A sudden laughter erupted from Iason, a laughter which ended up with his blue eyes looking down into his, into his soul, at least that is what it felt like…</p>
<p>“Sometimes, I entertained the thought of being obedient enough, being content enough for a regular Knight who made no promises when he was a ten-year-old ball of black cotton.”</p>
<p>“Ouch.”</p>
<p>“You were the type I always imagined. A bit cute, a bit strong, a bit noble… A lot <em>long </em>was icing on the cake. In particular, his icing, my cake.”</p>
<p>Trying to erase icing and cakes from his mind, Riki asked, “You always wanted a man?”</p>
<p>“Hm… I always wanted a penis.”</p>
<p>“Understood. Anything else you always wanted from this regular Knight?”</p>
<p>“Oh, the usual. Treat me kindly, feed me delicious things, take me to beautiful places, feed me delicious things, have reasonable sexual requests, feed me delicious things…”</p>
<p>“Alright, alright. You wanted caramel apples, right?”</p>
<p>“And a whole roasted pig.”</p>
<p>“A whole pig!”</p>
<p>“I know you can afford it. You have a few boxes worth of pigs.”</p>
<p>“Would you also like a herd of goats? How about a pallet of wheat?”</p>
<p>“Yes, both. Thank you.”</p>
<p>That supercilious eyebrow raised really irked Riki! But in a good way! Riled him up was probably more like it. They returned to May’s Shop for fabric and a fitting, and Riki squeezed out a few more ‘discounts’ on much needed clothing repair utensils, along with a chest-baring robe for Iason. After that was candied apples of three flavors- lemon glaze, caramel, and toffee crunch- and Riki watched Iason eat apples in one full bite. Actually, it was more like he noticed two extra rows of teeth falling downwards to demolish each fruit into mush. Riki found the scene so entrancing, he didn’t notice Iason eating into another box before the man at the stand yelled.</p>
<p>“I have other customers, ya know!”</p>
<p>After apologizing profusely, and paying his share, Riki told Iason, “C’mon. Let’s find someone willing to part with a whole pig.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“You wanted a pig, right?”</p>
<p>“I…” Iason trailed, then finished softly, “I was merely teasing.”</p>
<p>“But you still want one.”</p>
<p>“It… It would be nice.”</p>
<p>So cute! Riki could barely stand it. Riki was only too happy to find a pig (and a discount on jerky in exchange for a cheaper price for Bison’s iron). He watched Iason hold the pig from two legs and eat off the thing as if it was but an ear of corn. Pupils narrowed, licking a profuse of saliva from his lips, Riki’s never seen a person enjoy eating so much.</p>
<p>By then, it was almost time’s up for Day One, and in the next morning, the first of the Summer Games shall start.</p>
<p>Before that, Riki needed to be registered as a candidate, and just in case Django came back, Riki wanted to be with the rest of Bison.</p>
<p>As they neared the small temporary home, he asked, “When’s the last time you had pig?”</p>
<p>“Never.”</p>
<p>“Never?! Then why did you ask for it. What if you didn’t like it?”</p>
<p>“I haven’t disliked something that smells so good. I doubted that way of inference would fail me now.”</p>
<p>“Glad you enjoyed it.”</p>
<p>“Yes…Um… Thank you…”</p>
<p>“Not used to saying that, I see. I’m super lucky, aren’t I?”</p>
<p>“I take it back.”</p>
<p>They made quite the pair. Good thing they separated after meeting up as kids. If they had grown up together, the shit they would get into! If he didn’t have Iason pregnant three times before then, that is.</p>
<p>Iason finished the whole damn pig before they returned, and not a moment too soon. There were several unknown persons standing around Bison’s Merchandise- plus, Django, looking so incredibly smug, one would think <em>he </em>was having a grand old time.</p>
<p>Actually, not all of the persons were unknown to Riki. He recognized Marcus Jayd, the Chief Sentinel, surrounded by both Sentinels and Knights of the highest pedigrees, literally. They hailed from power-hungry families with too many mediocre children and disappointing first heirs, or, if Amoi were to write about them for historical value, the bravest and most loyal subjects of the greatest nation under the gods’ blue skies.</p>
<p>He heard Iason sniff hard, in short bursts.</p>
<p>“What?” he murmured to himself.</p>
<p>Riki took him by the waist, whispering, “What’s wrong?”</p>
<p>“I smell… I smell Raoul.”</p>
<p>“Who’s that?”</p>
<p>Iason swallowed air for a few moments. “I… I don’t know…” He struggled to reach his collar, saying more with his movements than what his mouth could (not) express.</p>
<p>“Got it.”</p>
<p>Chief Jayd, a man of incredible strength, was built stocky and exactly average height, which made him just a tad bit taller than Riki.</p>
<p>For some reason he swallowed nervously just looking at Riki.</p>
<p>“Riki of Ceres.” Frowning, he turned to Iason with dark hazel eyes and a wiggle of his thick mustache. “Iason. Little minx.”</p>
<p>“Uggg,” groaned Iason, as if he’s heard the same joke thousands of times before, and didn’t think it was funny for the first thousand times he said it.</p>
<p>“Come inside.”</p>
<p>“Well, this is where I sleep, so…” Riki stepped inside before the rest of them, finding, with surprise, his friends sitting around a table, the usual arrangement made after a long day of business. Even more surprisingly, there was a Fashion Plate of a similar pattern- gods, he thought pattern! What makes much more sense is that they looked like they were brothers- blond, tall, light-colored skin. Except this one- Raoul, Raoul had curly blond hair and green eyes.</p>
<p>And inverted nipples. Large inverted, pinky pink nipples.</p>
<p>There were definitely much more important matters to attend to.</p>
<p>But, gods, those were some cute nipples!</p>
<p>When their eyes met, Raoul dropped his chin to his collarbone, giving him a little bow as an apology.</p>
<p>A totally different type of ‘monster’, one that was familiar and sad to see.</p>
<p>“Raoul!”</p>
<p>Iason nearly barreled Riki over to hug this Fashion Plate. He hugged him even as Raoul stood incredibly still, obediently still. Even as they stood there holding each other, Jayd went on with their business as if nothing at all was happening.</p>
<p>Without so much as a greeting, Jayd said, “Raoul. Tell Iason the good news.”</p>
<p>Besides his name, Riki had no certainties about what kind of person Jayd was. However, Riki knew so much at once with Jayd’s holier-than-thou attitude, inviting Riki in as if he owned the place! This was the kind of guy who would push a Ceresi out of the way like errant dust. A guy who would look at the City of Orphans and wonder why any powerful god would put a moment’s notice on the poor wretches. All in all, an asshole.</p>
<p>“Yes, Sir.” With this, Raoul said into his chest. “Iason. Please leave this poor abode and come with me. I have been given permission to have a Knight of my own choosing. If you would but come with me, we can deliberate together on our future master.”</p>
<p>Iason kneeled a bit in an attempt to look into Raoul’s deferential eyes, and whispered in disbelief, “What?”</p>
<p>“Explain, Plate.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Sir.” Raoul even nodded. “I know you had asked of me to be just mildly disobedient so that we might see each other again. However, I found that… difficult. I also wished for more than a brief reunion. So I tasked myself with being the best Plate I could be-”</p>
<p>“<em>Oh, Raoul</em>.” Iason cupped Raoul’s cheek, caressing.</p>
<p>“-and I have trained enough that they have given me a chance of a lifetime. Although plans seem to have changed-”</p>
<p>Jayd interrupted, “He doesn’t need to know about earlier plans.”</p>
<p>Immediately: “Yes, Sir. That is all to say, they have allowed you and the rest of us to be exempt from the Games.”</p>
<p>That was no small accomplishment, and usually only happened to the most popular of Plates whose value bordered on priceless, and thus their acquisition became somewhat political. Such plates also had a skill or skills- harmless- yet which practical use changed the landscape of Amoi. The latest of which was Usagi Tsukino’s ability to cry diamonds (about four a month). However, someone kidnapped her approximately a month ago- obviously not for her diamonds, for hers are one of a kind, and no more have been added to the country’s collection. The baroness Beryl, who managed to prove that she alone could tell a Tsukino diamond from any others, has been, and continues to be, fanatical on finding her.</p>
<p>Jayd said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear: “Needless to say, Iason, that if you refuse, both you and Raoul will have to go through the Games, until you are won.” With a shrug and narrowed eyes, he added, “Also, we will be forced to amend the parameters of the entire ceremony- actually, let me correct that.”</p>
<p>Jayd glanced at Guy.</p>
<p>“We will be able to change the parameters of the entire ceremony. For example, instead of being one of the winners of one game, you will have to be one of the winners of five. Essentially prolonging the games, and your participation.”</p>
<p>“You weren’t able to amend before now?” Norris asked curiously. He couldn’t read the room if it was printed on his eyeballs.</p>
<p>Jayd looked at Norris, then stared at Guy. With a frown he demanded, “Django! Why is this one’s ears not bleeding?!”</p>
<p>
  <em>This one’s! This motherfucker!</em>
</p>
<p>Riki stayed silent as Django hurriedly explained, “My apologies, Sir. If what you say is in the form of a question, that does not trigger his ability.”</p>
<p>“Hmph. Stupid one. Refrain from unnecessary questions.”</p>
<p>“What do you consider necessary ones?” Norris’ genuine confusion made the rest of his friends suck in their cheeks to keep from smiling.</p>
<p>“Ones where you don’t speak. Now-” He turned away from Norris’ snarl to face Iason. “Your answer? I am a very busy man.”</p>
<p>Riki should have known there would be even more complicated obstacles- before any damn game even started. At least he knew now that Iason would be with someone he trusted, and he wouldn’t have to go through any game, including, but not limited to Round Table, where several people (even women) forced a Plate to perform oral sex. Whoever came first won a Plate!</p>
<p>Hell, if Riki knew if he was presented with the same opportunity, he would choose to go with them.</p>
<p>“I expect you have been lied to, Raoul.” Of course, Iason had to be sure. An intelligent course of action.</p>
<p>Jayd swirled a finger, and a sentinel took out a scroll to lay flat on the table. It could only be what would be the only thing to make everything certain: a blood contract. One black handprint on one side of an ancient rune symbol, one that smelled of Raoul, and the other side holding several, Jayd among them. The magic was so heavy, those sitting at the table had to back away. Such magic exuded fumes, while a single scratch to the surface could burn off a limb.</p>
<p>“This contract was made years ago,” Iason observed, sliding a finger under the words.</p>
<p>“When it showed aptitude for perfection, I gave it this opportunity.” Jayd nodded.</p>
<p>“Your magnanimity knows no bounds.”</p>
<p>Ignoring the sarcasm, Jayd simply smiled. “You will read that others of your pattern shall be given the same opportunity. Just in case you, or Riki, thought they were special in some way.”</p>
<p>Riki laughed a short laugh, throwing up a hand with exasperation. “Funny that you would point that out.” He looked at Django, however.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s that funny. Just the truth.” Jayd switched his focus back to Iaosn. “As you can also see, if you refuse, Raoul will not only have to go through Games, it will have to be won by your candidate in particular, or else be sold to a brothel of <em>your </em>choosing. Of course, if any of the other patterns refuse, it will be the same. Actually, an amendment. If Iason were to accept, and the next pattern- say, Orphe- refused, its candidate disqualified, then <em>it </em>then will have to choose a brothel for both Iason and Raoul.</p>
<p>“Now, your answer.”</p>
<p>They really went all in. Iason would be able to pick a master with all his brother-like fellow Plates. How could Riki hold a candle to all those guarantees when all he had was a promise? If he failed, he would utterly ruin their lives. He would not take it personally if-</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>There wasn’t a single head that didn’t pop up, and a shocked silence permeated the room.</p>
<p>It was one of the Knights who asked, “Did it just say ‘no’?”</p>
<p>Iason repeated clearly, “Yes. I said ‘no’. I will stay in this poor abode, and choose Riki as a candidate.”</p>
<p>“You cannot be serious!” Raoul finally put some energy into his voice and his… hair curled up into bunches, in particular two bunches on either side of his head, and two behind his shoulders. “Do you know what I had to do to get to this point?!”</p>
<p>Jayd and the other proctors allowed Raoul to vent: “I had four Carpets watching my every move, there to make I didn’t put an eyebrow out of place, kept nothing less than a smile on my face! Do you know how many times I have been melted for the smallest of mistakes? Do you know how many times I’ve been deprived of food, drink, sleep, companionship? I didn’t speak to anyone for months, Iason! Months! Please, don’t do this to me!” Raoul began to pant, nearing hysteria. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t. Please, don’t.”</p>
<p>As Iason seemed not to be bothered in the least, Raoul instead heaped his frustrations on Riki: “This stunted mongrel is your candidate?! Not him?” He pointed at Norris. “Or him!” He pointed at Maxie.</p>
<p>“He’s stronger than both of them put together.”</p>
<p>“Oh! Prove it, mongrel!”</p>
<p>A few of the proctors’ guards laughed.</p>
<p>“That will be funny to see.”</p>
<p>“Go ahead, little mongrel. Wrestle by the arms with them both.”</p>
<p>Riki stayed still. “I’d rather Iason take this chance and go with Raoul.”</p>
<p>Iason didn’t look at him. “I will take my chances with you.”</p>
<p>“He has no confidence in himself!” Raoul insisted.</p>
<p>“I didn’t say that.”</p>
<p>At Riki’s bold words, Raoul now demanded, “Oh, so you have confidence you are stronger than those two put together?” Riki looked at Django with a snap of his eyes, for the man suddenly turned green- turned positively nauseous when their eyes met.</p>
<p>This did not slide past Jayd.</p>
<p>“Show me,” the chief demanded.</p>
<p>Django tried to diffuse the situation: “Obviously he’s bluffing-”</p>
<p>“Show me.”</p>
<p>At this, Maxie stood, and Norris followed suit. The both of them stretched their shoulders and hands, cracking joints and flexing large muscles that Riki wished he had. He could tell people he worked hard for every straining fiber and not that he obviously had a supernatural basis to his strength, which he now could put on display for everyone inside.</p>
<p>Moving the steaming contract out of the way with his fingernails, Riki sat on one side of the table, and both Norris and Maxie stood on the other side. There was no need for a count off or anything of the sort. Maxie grabbed to pull his arm down and Norris added his arm to it. It wasn’t even mildly difficult to keep his arm still. It was, however, a bit hard to beat them both without tearing their arms off.</p>
<p>“They aren’t even trying!” Raoul insistent voice almost wounded Riki’s pride, but he knew Raoul was ignorant of any of his special skills.</p>
<p>“Riki goes by ‘he’,” Iason said with a smile.</p>
<p>Losing all patience, Raoul stomped (with his bare feet) to the table, reaching the combination of their three hands. Riki prepared his arm to be snapped across his elbow- at least he knew that it would heal quickly.</p>
<p>Just one quick snap.</p>
<p>Raoul pushed at their hands with a growl.</p>
<p>A slight heaviness, and Raoul’s hand was pushed back.</p>
<p>Django’s soul seemed to live his body, the guards’ mouths dropped, and the proctors gasped- one of them even stood up.</p>
<p>“Again, Plate! Pull his arm entirely to the table!”</p>
<p>Raoul shoved Norris and Maxie nearly off their feet, and without preamble yanked onto Riki’s hand in an effort to uproot his damn shoulder- Riki could feel the effort.</p>
<p>“What the- What is this!” Raoul pulled, actually breaking the tie, and Riki used his own effort- actual effort- to keep his arm upright. “You’re the strongest man I’ve ever met! This is why Iason chose you! Wait… Is he…” He turned to Iason.</p>
<p>Iason nodded with a small smile.</p>
<p>As if all the pieces finally fell together, Raoul’s face brightened with what could actually be called happiness.</p>
<p>“What if I used both hands?” Apparently enthralled with this development, Raoul used both hands at once, succeeding in bringing him down for a few more inches, and causing his muscles to burn. With a gasp, he whispered, “This is why they have to amend the Games. They have to be fair to everyone involved, but involving you makes it unfair. This has happened very rarely before, but I don’t understand…”</p>
<p>He turned to the proctors.</p>
<p>“In the Summer Games of the Year of a Thousand Wings, Heero Yuy was made to wear gauntlets that prevented his ability to fire beams of light and hindered his ability to fly. Why not just make Riki do the same?”</p>
<p>“Heero still won a gods-damned Game,” muttered one of the guards.</p>
<p>“This man is simply superbly powerful. A few gauntlets should do the trick. Oh.” Raoul bit into a fingernail, abandoning the arm wrestling, and he whispered to himself. “Those gauntlets took months to build. His candidacy was announced a year in advance. But he’s a mongrel! How did his abilities fly under the radar? Django was in charge of him.”</p>
<p>Jayd stood up; all of his attention was on Django.</p>
<p>“Is your refusal your final answer, Iason?”</p>
<p>Instead of answering right away, Iason addressed Raoul with their hands intertwined, “Raoul.” Neither said a word more, yet the unspoken promises between the two of them settled. Raoul’s anxiety had not disappeared, and may not have even lessened all that much, while Iason didn’t want to leave Riki if he could help it- but if Raoul wanted to stay, the gratitude would be immeasurable, and if he wanted Iason to go, that decision equally understandable. Not to mention that the rest of their ‘pattern’ would be saved from much distress as well.</p>
<p>Raoul pressed his head into Iason’s shoulder.</p>
<p>“That will be my final answer.”</p>
<p>“Give the filthy mongrel a Knight’s contract.”</p>
<p>A more regularly sized piece of parchment was spread onto the table, but with magic older and stronger than that which made up the contract Raoul signed. A guard produced a knife and offered it to Riki. Riki took it and cut the palm of his left hand, pressing a print into the paper. He watched his blood spread to take shape of his hand.</p>
<p>Then the hand enlarged itself.</p>
<p>The print’s fingers seemed to scratch underneath the surface of the paper. Whenever parts of the print met fresh parts of the paper, confounding scratches ensued, as if something within struggled to free itself. The entire paper, now colored reddish black, popped up and flipped over, crackling like meat frying in its own juices.</p>
<p>This went on until the guard who initially handed over the contract gave it a little poke with the butt of his sword. Smoke hissed from the point of the disturbance, eventually engulfing the contract in its blackness, emitting a vile odor that had everyone backing against the walls.</p>
<p>Except for Riki. Although he did smell a strong charring of paper, he also smelled something familiar. Something… protective…</p>
<p>Both smell and paper became naught but dust in the wind in the span of a moment.</p>
<p>“What does this mean, Your Eminence?” one of the <em>proctors</em> asked of Jayd.</p>
<p>Another proctor took out a green glowing book. With a practiced hand he flung magic at the pages and they turned themselves. He read, informing everyone, “He’s in the book of candidates… Riki of Ceres, Riki the Lost One, Riki Vajra. Those are all his names. So that means he was not rejected completely.”</p>
<p>Another proctor put in her own theory: “He most certainly was rejected <em>because </em>he is <em>already </em>in the book of candidates. When is his name in the list?”</p>
<p>“When?”</p>
<p>“Who is he before? Who is he after?”</p>
<p>The man checked, flipping the pages manually. With a gasp, he said, “He is the first candidate of this year…” He turned more pages. “And last year! And the year before last…” He grabbed several sheets at once. “His name first appears… Ten! Ten years ago! He signed a contract ten years ago!”</p>
<p>Jayd snapped, “Children are not able to sign the contract to participate in the Games- only to be trained as Knights! Has no one ever thought to check the list to make sure all was in order?”</p>
<p>A resounding silence answered that.</p>
<p>“Django!”</p>
<p>Jumping like a child caught stealing an apple turnover, Django explained as best he could with the audience he had, “What I saw did not entail any signing of physical contracts.”</p>
<p>“And verbally?”</p>
<p>“To be honest, Your Eminence, I have no idea what that would entail in the first place. At the very least, no one there was aware they were making a contract. However.”</p>
<p>Whether Django was snarling or smiling, Riki couldn’t tell.</p>
<p>“If Riki doesn’t keep his promise in its entirety, he will die.”</p>
<p>A soft gasp from Guy put Riki on edge, and Django and his people visibly relaxed.</p>
<p>“We have much to do then,” Jayd announced. “Do not believe that this is the last we will speak of this, Django.”</p>
<p>“Of course, Sir.”</p>
<p>Without a goodbye or anything of the sort, Django, Jayd, the guards, and the other proctors left.</p>
<p>“Wooooooo! That was scary!” Norris yelled, sitting back down at the table to drop his head with a bang. He brought it up quickly. “You’re going to die if you don’t keep your promise?!”</p>
<p>“You made a verbal contract with Iason,” Raoul stated.</p>
<p>Guy said immediately, “No. None of that’s true. No one made any contracts, verbal or physical or otherwise.”</p>
<p>“Hm… That is not unusual. There are many ways to insert a name into the book of candidates other than the candidate making a contract. What I don’t understand is that Iason has always said that Riki promised to take him home- not to be his Knight. Why would the something-other-than-a-contract require that of him?”</p>
<p>“Well…” Iason puckered his lips. “He promised to be a Knight, and win me, and ignore his post to bring me home.”</p>
<p>“Ah. That’s what Django meant by ‘entirety’. Wait… Was he there?”</p>
<p>“Apparently so. He can become invisible.”</p>
<p>“My, his abilities are numerous.” Raoul turned to Riki. “Not as many as yours, I presume. Judging by your expressions as all this transpired, you have not the slightest clue on your origins. Just like the rest of us.”</p>
<p>Riki frowned. The world he didn’t know about himself just got a whole lot bigger.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The first of the Summer Games utilize the blazing sun for the longest day of the year.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Winged Cupid Painted Blind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Day Two comes with many questions, many answers, more questions. What's worst, Amoian royalty is treating Riki like the next plague just in time for the first Game, for reasons he doesn't fully understand. Well, it all boils down to him winning, and that is what he's going to do.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry it's a bit long! And there is no sex yet! But, ha-ha! Next chapter, we'll be working with lubrication, if you know what I mean</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Two-and-a-twelfth pigs. Iason ate two-and-a-twelfth pigs yesterday. He meant to eat three, but while nibbling the sow’s ear, his full stomach reached his mind and numbed him to a sudden sleepiness. Somewhere between that and his head hitting the pillow, Riki offered his bed that seemed to sprout from the wall. Iason watched as Norris proved his worth, plucking magic from the dirt, twisting little mounds of mud, while squinting and arguing with small sparkling amber elementals. The table, the shelves disappeared to a different dimension, one that only he and the elementals could reach, perhaps. Beds, a few sinks with running water, courtesy of Sid, apparently, talking to a single swirling snowflake.</p><p>Once Raoul forced his way onto his own bed, alone, and Riki settled next to Guy and Norris and Sid lost at rock-paper-scissors to be squeezed onto the last bed, Iason fell straight asleep.</p><p>Usually, when forced into the Plates tent and then forced to sleep there, the bells ringing in the Summer Games would wake him from a restless sleep. They would be forced to watch Game after Game after Game after filthy fucking Game.</p><p>However, today was different. He awoke to Riki’s heavy smell. Dark, sultry, everywhere, mysteriously moving and so unable to be stuck to a single pinpoint in the air.</p><p>Much like many other days, he awoke to Daryl’s words, not to him, but to Riki: “I quite enjoy this work, Sir Riki- I mean, Riki. Oh, truly, Sir Riki, it is much too difficult to keep Sir from my mind. In any case-” Uh, oh, that meant a lecture was incoming. “-you will be the only Ceresi in the Games. If I am the only Carpet calling a would-be Knight by his given name, that will make you look bad.”</p><p>“I don’t give a shit how I look.”</p><p>“In the beginning Games you shall make a name for yourself as an individual, but too much attention will give your fellow candidates ideas.”</p><p>Iason sat up. Daryl was standing by a pot of what smelled like porridge and eggs, with pieces of chicken mixed in, if Iason’s nose was right. Iason always had a Daryl in mind that would relax all day with books if not forced to take care of Plates. Obviously, Iason was wrong to think that.</p><p>“Ideas?”</p><p>“Yes. To gang up on you. I suggest you lay low for as long as possible. With the technology we have today, that may be difficult, but please try.”</p><p>“Man, you’re more of a worrywart than Maxie.”</p><p>Maxie’s gruff voice came through the makeshift door before the man did: “I’m a worrywart, am I? You know what, I think I’m a bit worried we ain’t got enough wood to make the camps going back…”</p><p>Riki quipped, “I was talking about another Maxie. That girl that works the fruit stand by the bakery.”</p><p>Norris grumbled sleepily, “Ain’t her name Moxie?”</p><p>“Wouldja go back to sleep,” Riki growled through gritted teeth.</p><p>“We definitely don’t have enough wood.” Maxie rubbed his chin.</p><p>Eager to save Riki, Iason said, “How long will that take? I was hoping to prep Riki before the first game.”</p><p>“You don’t know what the first Game is.”</p><p>After taking a quick taste of the porridge, Daryl informed them, “There are many Games which require ‘prepping’. With a majority of candidates celebrating at night, and sleeping in until the bells, they never get in mind to prep until the later games. The most important prep, if you can coax your Plate to help you, is to get them aroused and, eventually, lead them to climax.”</p><p>That wasn’t what he meant at all!</p><p>“Daryl! That wasn’t what I meant at all! I meant… uh… Like where I would hide in a massive Hide and Seek, or my favorite patterns and clothing, and such… things!”</p><p>Very persuasive.</p><p>Clearing his throat and looking… elsewhere, Riki asked, “There aren’t a lot of Games that require… all of that, right? And after tomorrow, I can choose which games I want.”</p><p>Ignoring Iason, and waving away Riki’s concerns, Daryl smoothly replied, “I encourage you to participate in those lots of Games that require ‘all of that’. It is quite obvious that Iason finds you exceedingly sexually appealing, and that shall work to your advantage, and to the disadvantage of others.”</p><p>“Obvious!” repeated Iason indignantly.</p><p>“As obvious as the erection you are sporting right now.”</p><p>Iason looked down, and, indeed, he had an erection sporting clearly and largely through the thin sheet that kept him comfortable through the warm summer night. He rustled up the blankets in embarrassment, trying to hide himself.</p><p>“How long have I been erect? Why were you just letting it stay there?!”</p><p>Riki, still looking… elsewhere… answered, “We’re all people with penises here- well, here at Bison.” He glanced at Daryl who pretended to be immersed in stirring. “You think we haven’t walked around with morning wood?”</p><p>“Morning… wood?”</p><p>“You know, hard as wood.”</p><p>“Ah.” He was still embarrassed. “Were you erect as a direct result of your peers?”</p><p>“You think we haven’t had sex? We have had every combination there is up in here.”</p><p>Raoul popped up from the depths of his blankets, excitedly asking, “Norris and Maxie have been together?”</p><p>“Uhhh… Every combo except with Maxie.”</p><p>With a disinterested grunt, Raoul fell back into his pillow.</p><p>“He’s kind of like a dad.”</p><p>Iason caught the flustered visage Maxie attempted to hide. He couldn’t help teasing: “I wonder if that’s how he feels? Or does he feel like, eventually, he will have his own harem of young men to enjoy at his leisure?”</p><p>Maxie closed his eyes. He swallowed, breathed and spread out his barrel chest before announcing, “I’mma go get some wood.”</p><p>“Is that slang for releasing your own sexual tension?”</p><p>Without answering, Maxie escaped.</p><p>“Iason,” Daryl chided.</p><p>Iason laughed. “I had a difficult time behaving before. Why would I start now?”</p><p>“Maybe Riki can finally set you straight.”</p><p>Daryl was teasing him!</p><p>“Riki doesn’t scare me. As you know, he sparks quite the opposite reaction.”</p><p>Riki turned his head from elsewhere to grin at him- what sharp fangs he had- and he winked at Guy, who was now awake, as were the rest of them, now that Iason had a good look.</p><p>“I bet I can scare you and you wouldn’t lose a bit of that ‘opposite reaction’.”</p><p>Whatever that meant, his friends apparently knew.</p><p>Norris goaded, “Do it! Do the scary thing!”</p><p>On the other hand, Guy said, “Raoul is here, and maybe he doesn’t want to be scared first thing in the morning.”</p><p>“I doubt this little man can scare me.” Raoul’s confidence raised Guy’s brows, and he shrugged.</p><p>“It’ll be better if you guys were on one bed,” Luke said. He was in the middle of wiping his glasses that hid sensitive elliptical eyes.</p><p>(Still hidden underneath his blanket) Iason joined Raoul on Luke’s bed. As they fit together more comfortably, Riki stood there with the same smile and crossed arms.</p><p>They were finally comfortable and both of them looked at Riki from across the roo-</p><p>“BOO!”</p><p>“AAAAAAHHHH!!!!”</p><p>One moment Riki was next to Daryl, the next, his face, with eyes and mouth seething black smoke and making an absolute terror of their normal shapes, was directly above theirs. Except his face <em>wasn’t </em>above theirs but just in front, and it was all in Iason’s mind that Riki came upon them as a giant monster ready to chomp his face.</p><p>“Hmmmmmm?” Riki hummed, pushing himself up from the bed. “Did I scare you?”</p><p>“No,” Iason lied immediately. He stayed with that short answer. His heart thudded so hard in his chest he was sure any extra words would come out in great stutters.</p><p>“So you screamed because I didn’t scare you?”</p><p>“Precisely.”</p><p>Riki blew a little raspberry and then spoke to Raoul, whose face was buried into Iason’s neck.</p><p>“What about you, Raoul? You wanna lie, too, and say I didn’t scare you?”</p><p>Raoul sniffed, and Iason thought he was about to stubbornly say he wasn’t scared.</p><p>But his green eyes were filled with tears and he whispered, “You scared me.”</p><p>“I’m sorry!” Riki was on his knees with the apology faster than he scared the both of them.</p><p>“No. I’m sorry. I just wanted to be brave like Iason and not ruin the fun.” Hiccupping, he began to cry a little harder. “But I ruined everything anyway.”</p><p>“Hey, you didn’t ruin nothin’. You just bit off a little more than you can chew, and believe you me, I know about that. I’m a little man, remember?”</p><p>“I’m sorry I called you a ‘little man’!”</p><p>Seeing as his teasing backfired, Riki tried again, “I don’t care that you called me little. It’s the truth. It’s fine. You’re fine.”</p><p>Raoul pressed a hand over his heart, trying to calm down, while Iason rhythmically ran his other fingers through his palms, a little tactic he learned long ago, within the nest… and Mother would take a bit long in the morning when everyone was really hungry…</p><p>Raoul looked at down at their hands, smiling sweetly. Iason pressed their foreheads together until Raoul was calm.</p><p>Riki had backed away to the porridge pot to give them some space.</p><p>“They popped out,” Raoul complained.</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>His hatchmate cupped both his breasts, accentuating his formerly inverted nipples flipped out and hard, and so very large. Oh, he had caught Riki staring at them once or twice, and the size of them sparked a bit of envy. Envy turned to pettiness.</p><p>“Look at this, Riki.” Riki turned to Iason as he bared himself and Raoul to the rest of the room. In the back of his mind he noted each and every eye, every tongue that suddenly swiped over dry lips.</p><p>“I’m still erect, just as you said I would be. And you made poor Raoul’s nipples jump with fright.” With an arm around Raoul’s chest, he pinched a nipple with thumb and forefinger. “They’re so much bigger than mine, aren’t they?”</p><p>“You jealous of ‘em?”</p><p>As if Riki would take such provocation without firing back, even though his eyes were riveted so!</p><p>“Now, why would I be? Are you saying you prefer them bigger?”</p><p>“Iason,” whispered Raoul, and Iason was just about ready to stop before he finished, “I’m becoming aroused.”</p><p>He stared at himself in absolute wonder as the upper shaft filled the labia-shaped flesh that constituted their foreskin, and the rest of his penis descended from the confines of his body.</p><p>“I’ve never been aroused without command and aphrodisiacs.”</p><p>“Neither have I.” Iason pushed his mouth at the corner of Raoul’s, locking eyes with Riki. “How will you take responsibility, Master Riki?”</p><p>Riki squeaked out, “Are you sure-” He coughed, swallowed some saliva to moisten his throat a bit. “You sure you wanna do this in front of everyone?”</p><p>“He speaks as if we have ever been allowed to do anything in private,” Raoul remarked, not teasing or poking fun, just relaying the facts.</p><p>Daryl then stated, “You will be doing this in front of thousands of people, Riki. In fact, if the latest advances are to be believed, we will reach a cool million pairs of eyes watching the Amoian Summer Games. If you choke in front of less than a dozen trusted friends and sexual partners, what makes you think you will be able to perform among the public?”</p><p>“Yea, Riki? How will you perform?” Luke teased from the floor beside Norris’ bed.</p><p>Sid spat out the water he was using to rinse out his mouth. “It’s time to practice, Riki. Pull out that sledgehammer you call a dick and prepare!”</p><p>“Alright! I get it!” Riki yelled, sitting back down on his bed and scratching a bit behind his ear.</p><p>Raoul asked into Iason’s ear, “Does he have a large penis?”</p><p>“Yes, almost ridiculously so.”</p><p>“How is it almost?”</p><p>“He pulls it off.”</p><p>“I pull it off, he says,” was Riki’s soft mutter.</p><p>He stared at them; they stared at him; they stared at them.</p><p>Riki groaned loudly, falling face-first into the bed. “It’s hard to do this if I don’t know what you like! See, growing up with them, I know what they like.”</p><p>Iason draped himself over Riki, letting his hair tickle his exposed ear and neck. Riki swallowed hard.</p><p>“You knew exactly what they would enjoy the first time?”</p><p>Another groan.</p><p>“I guess not.”</p><p>Sid yelled, “Definitely not! He rubbed right here.” He pointed in the center of his antlers. “I do not like to be touched here! At all! Not even a little bit!”</p><p>Riki laughed at the memory. “I thought he was having a seizure! It was actually super cute. His lip-”</p><p>“-pokes out like this,” Guy finished, demonstrating for them. He squeezed his eyes tight and made his lower lip quiver in discomfort, while Sid from across from him rolled his eyes.</p><p>“I did just walk right into that one, didn’t I?” admitted Sid.</p><p>“Wouldn’t you know, Daryl? All of Iason’s secret spots?”</p><p>Daryl was now passing out bowls of porridge, and handed one to Guy at that moment he asked.</p><p>“Carpets aren’t tasked with teaching Plates sexual skills.”</p><p>“Ain’t… tasked?”</p><p>“We’re free to do anything we wish, except let them go, of course, and make sure that whatever we do doesn’t prevent them from learning whatever whoever wanted them to learn.” He shrugged. “I never tried to use my slightly higher position to take advantage of his.”</p><p>Raoul chuckled. “Your luck with people is extraordinary, Iason. A Carpet with a moral compass, and a Knight who makes a promise and works his entire life to fulfill that promise.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“He doesn’t know.”</p><p>“Holy shit, you’re right!”</p><p>Raoul lifted an eyebrow at the side chatter.</p><p>Iason filled him in: “Riki actually… doesn’t remember that night at all.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“He remembers absolutely none of it.”</p><p>“And he… So you tell him about the promise, he believes you, and now he’s a candidate buying you clothes and shoes?”</p><p>“Yes. That is the sum of it.”</p><p>“By the gods….” Raoul wiped his face with both hands. “Do you know how close I was last night to just going back? I let the moment take me, to believe in you and him and how hard the two of you worked.”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Iason replied guiltily.</p><p>“You misunderstand. Knowing the finer details have made me more confident in my decision, and gives the ultimate truth to what I said before.”</p><p>“To be fair, I thought he would remember, because of all the circumstances leading to our meeting.”</p><p>“Now.” Raoul joined him leaning over Riki, and he lowered himself to stare curiously into Riki’s eyes. “Now I’m under the impression that he will actually attempt to win the both of us.”</p><p>Before Iason could reassure him that Riki was not that ambitious, Riki answered blithely, “Of course.”</p><p>Iason took Riki’s face into his hands, squeezing.</p><p>“Are you a fool? However are you going to win the both of us? A candidate cannot win more than one Plate.”</p><p>“You swee,” Riki answered from puckered lips, and Iason loosened his grip a tad. “You see, while you two went into a food coma, I asked Guy a few questions.”</p><p>“A few?” Guy mumbled.</p><p>“A few hundred,” Luke corrected. “I was listening until question 122, I think.”</p><p>Riki cleared his throat. “Until his ears started ringing from use.”</p><p>“Abuse.”</p><p>“And we learned a hell of a lot. The biggest thing we learned- although it’s pretty obvious already- is that all these guys- the proctors, the nobility, all of them are forced to do the Games. Don’t know why, and we can’t ask about it, but anyway, they have to do the Games. And the Games have to be fair, not just for appearances’ sake like we all assume.” Riki squinted as he tried to put words to what knowledge he knew. “Like the Games, this fairness is forced, and the second biggest thing we learned is-”</p><p>Guy finished, “Fairness is fucking complicated. I can’t hear most of the questions about fairness in the Games, and the proctors prolly have curses out the ass so that only a chosen few know about them. Still, they are enforced.”</p><p>As Iason pondered the ramifications of such hindrances, Raoul inquired, “Is it somehow unfair for Riki not to win two Plates?”</p><p>“Well, we got to the bottom of that. It’s complicated, like we said…</p><p>“Shit! We almost forgot to tell them!” He sat up and grabbed both their hands. With shining black eyes, he told them. “The fairness extends to Plates, too.”</p><p>Iason shook his head. “I do not understand.”</p><p>“Well. We don’t really either, but it’s what we think your training is really about. We learned that wherever y’all supposedly volunteer from, they have to coax you out. Does that make sense to you?”</p><p>Iason remembered being in the nest, holding Raoul in his arms. He remembered dozens of nests with much smaller broods. Most of them had long lost their members, but Iason was stubborn. He didn’t believe what the strangers said; that they were abandoned. As the strongest of them, he forced the rest of his… pattern to stay in the nest. They cried, and screamed, and breathed fire when people came near. No one could touch them, though, that was for sure, or else their body went up in flames, automatically.</p><p>But they were starving. Eventually Iason passed out, and awoke to being alone in the nest.</p><p>“Yes,” Raoul murmured.</p><p>“Yes.” Iason could almost taste his own bitterness.</p><p>Riki treaded carefully. “Then they get the collars on you, put you with Carpets, and force you into Games. They teach you that you’re just a prize, but it’s not like that.”</p><p>“It’s not?”</p><p>“From what we gathered, it’s a matchmaking ordeal?”</p><p>Norris complained, “I’m confused. The Plates have no choice or anything.”</p><p>“Except the candidates,” said Luke.</p><p>“That don’t make no sense, neither. The candidates can pick whoever, so the Plates don’t really have a choice.”</p><p>“We figure,” Guy spoke while rubbing his long ears, “they train you to think that you don’t have a choice.”</p><p>Sid intervened, “The collars! Do y’all put them on yaselves or do they force them on you?”</p><p>“Oh, yea, that’s important.”</p><p>Iason and Raoul answered together, “We put them on.”</p><p>“To be fair,” Raoul spoke wryly, “they starve us and surround us with Cryptic stones, so we aren’t given much of a choice. The only reason Iason put his on was because the rest of us were being tortured.”</p><p>Riki asked, “The rest of you?”</p><p>“Our pattern.”</p><p>Sid said softly, “Looks like your theory is prolly correct, Riki.”</p><p>“What theory?”</p><p>“Let’s not try to go down that road,” Riki warned. “Guy might go deaf.”</p><p>“Is that a possibility?”</p><p>“Yea. I asked him where Plates came from when we are younger, and he couldn’t hear anything for a month. I asked a whole lot of things that were super dangerous.”</p><p>Norris brought in: “One time he was like ‘there is a way to kill a god’ and Guy’s ears fell off!”</p><p>Guy cleared his throat. “I heard that my ears fell off, so let’s not start having me hear or not hear any dangerous truths or lies or whatever.”</p><p>“Then please clear this up for me.” Raoul brought up three fingers. “Fairness. Winning more than one Plate. Collars being forced on us.”</p><p>Riki brought up three fingers of his own, going backwards, “Collars force Plates into playing the Games. It’s important that you have to play the Games, and y’all can’t be threatened by Crytic stones to play.”</p><p>One finger went down.</p><p>“So, you’re forced to be in the Games. Knight candidates are forced to win, that’s what’s in our contracts, part of our promise. You’re made to believe you are forced to be won. But then why have y’all in the game at all? Why not have the rest of us candidates fuckin’ arm wrestle and the winners just go and pick a Plate? It’s because y’all have to, kind of, choose a candidate. So what happens if two of y’all choose the same candidate?”</p><p>Two fingers down, but Raoul interrupted, “That only means anything <em>if </em>you’re correct that the winning in Games is a two-way street.”</p><p>“Right. Still. If what we think is all true, then that would make things ‘fair’.”</p><p>DONG-DONG-DONG-DONG</p><p>Obnoxiously loud bells brought in an early start to Day Two.</p><p>“We should have another bit of shadow before the ceremony commences.” Daryl looked out the window to be sure, making out the position of the sun as it shone inside their little building. “We have plenty of time. Why would they start so early? Come and eat up, everyone. We shall not have food go to waste.”</p><p>They devoured Daryl’s home cooking, with many comments of ‘almost as good as Mother Langeais’ going around, much to Daryl’s wordless, yet self-satisfied smiles to himself. He became an integral part to their fashion for the day, as they were allowed to be amongst the nobles and semi-nobles and general non-Ceresian-folk as part of Riki’s entourage- at least that is how he explained that to all of them as he forced them into stiff, quality outfits. Although not at all common, he made sure both Iason and Raoul somewhat matched their clothing with the fabrics available.</p><p>“What in the blazes!”</p><p>“Why he got two, now?”</p><p>“He doesn’t have them carryin’ a bit!”</p><p>“He will spoil those Plates. What a waste.”</p><p>Yet, Iason believed that all of them would kill to be in Riki’s place, jealous and unskilled, bland and close-minded. If he had been in the careless care of these people, they would never self-reflect as badly as they judged.</p><p>Still, he’d rather the peanut gallery than those who had the gall to pester Riki about how much renting either Raoul and himself would go for, or if he was willing to part with either of them completely.</p><p>“Not for sale at all. At all, I fuckin’ said!”</p><p>Riki’s more fervently annoyed shouts did nothing to quell the tide, and they were left to march in silence, save for a smack of a straying hand here and there. Raoul cut close to Maxie, and Maxie in turn kept anyone from even looking at him wrong. Once Maxie put his mind to it, he was a right charitable gentleman.</p><p>It was still a wonder- a wonder Iason did not care to jinx- that the rest of Bison Merchandise seemed to just go along with whatever Riki wanted. None of them tried to stop him, or talked him out of anything. It was as if everything was as normal. Perhaps the lot of them had talked while he was dead to the world and came to an agreement after heated arguments?</p><p>They arrived at the Coliseum. Iason’s eyes automatically went to his former seating arrangement, the rows and columns underneath the king’s cabins, where immature (untrained) Plates sat around and saw their futures laid out before them. From their position, they could see the candidates and Plates separating from the onlookers. Said onlookers gathered into the stadium, with the entourage for candidates in the seats closest to the inner ring. Candidates and Plates stood towards the center of the ring, within an inner incantation ring, a teleportation spell for large groups to whatever field whatever game demanded.</p><p>Iason couldn’t even see any of the other twenty-four he trained with, there were so many other Plates, and the candidates numbered even more so. Iason had always questioned why there were so many more candidates than Plates- but if Riki’s midnight conversation held any truth, there were many reasons why. Those reasons became lost to time.</p><p>“Friends, Amoians, countrymen! Lend me your ears!”</p><p>“Our King!”</p><p>“He has spoken!”</p><p>“Your Excellency Ugo!”</p><p>“Praise His Holiness!”</p><p>Hundred-and-Third King Lanaya Ugo dressed in enough golden-embroidered golden layers to hide the shadows of his face from the shadows of his face. His Holy Visage visible only to the gods, the people venerated him as such, and he put up this annoying persona of a down-to-earth lover of all people.</p><p>Of course, Iason saw him as the supreme of the supreme Sentinels with his own little Plates, with the word ‘little’ used in the figurative and literal. As the rest of the nation accepted the explanation that only the most innocent and pure could handle the godliness of an Amoian King, Iason saw this owner of a harem of strictly-non-adult Plates as what he fucking was: a pedophile. Once he was free, if he had any say about it, this so-called Amoian god will be the first god to die in known history.</p><p>“Yes, my beloved people, it is I, your blessed ruler. Here we have the continuation of our Gods-honored tradition of the Summer Games, where noble candidates compete to earn one of the lovely creatures who volunteered after their monstrous parents decided to abandon them. Fashion Plates, are you grateful?”</p><p>At this usual part of the script, Plates young and old (mostly young) screamed, none of them particularly grateful, much less joyous.</p><p>“So grateful! So joyous! None more so than my Angels here.”</p><p>He called his baby Plates Angels. So gross.</p><p>Riki murmured in his ear, “Super gross how he calls those kids his Angels.”</p><p>“Angels surrounding the God of Amoi.”</p><p>“God? I need to see that face of his first. I betcha it’ll make a god cry in horror.”</p><p>A couple of heads turned to them as they started to laugh. Raoul wisely positioned his body in such a way that no one could really tell who he was with, Riki, or this bald dude with a big axe.</p><p>“Before we introduce the first of the Summer Games, I would like the most gracious of offers to a man who knows, deep in his soul, that he absolutely does not belong here. The other gods of the heavens have shown me a vision, of a taint that will bring the holy Games to its knees!”</p><p>“I’m sure the vision of his taint would kill a mortal,” Riki joked.</p><p>Raoul gasped in disbelief, warning, “You’ll make me vomit.”</p><p>“I offer this taint-”</p><p>Iason said a bit too loudly, “You should do that behind closed doors.” Oddly enough, those within hearing distance choked down their own laughter.</p><p>“Fifty thousand gold pieces! Am I not gracious?”</p><p>A stricken silence answered him.</p><p>
  <em>Fifty thousand gold pieces. </em>
</p><p>Even for a king, that was no small sum. It was an unbelievable amount of money, more than enough to buy land and build a small castle, pay serfs to do the majority of the work, or monger farming animals for eggs, milk and wool. An ambitious man could start a small village. An even more ambitious man could travel the world seeking even more riches, or pay some others to do the same. The possibilities were almost too many.</p><p>Even with two Plates, working five customers per day, for perhaps the hefty sum of 9 silver pieces per customer- doing the math was pointless, the time incomparable.</p><p>“According to your contract, you are unable to quit so easily, so I shall grant you an honorary victory. Leave this hallowed ground, and receive your payment, and wallow in my graciousness with eternal gratitude.”</p><p>Iason looked at Riki from the corner of his eyes. The best of men would take this opportunity, but his heart still fell a bit when Riki turned around to where his entourage seating was located. Iason saw as he did: Guy’s shocked face, and a thumbs up.</p><p>King Ugo was not lying.             </p><p>“For the Plate that chose you as candidate, the offer for hi Pattern is still available. You merely must take the money.”</p><p>There were many eyes looking at them, and when other eyes saw those eyes, they followed suit, and swam through the sea of people until nearly every near eye was on them. Riki stood out so easily in the first place, most eyes were already on him.</p><p>Yet, Riki stayed on the hallowed ground, as if checking in with Guy was but morbid curiosity.</p><p>“If you do not leave these Games, we will be forced to make drastic changes. For example, instead of using Cryptic stones in certain games, we shall use them in <em>all </em>of them.”</p><p>A look towards Guy showed that this in particular was a lie. Not like it mattered for the average citizen, or Plate.</p><p>A green-skinned Plate whispered, “Leave, mongrel! Do you not know how much fifty thousand gold pieces is?!”</p><p>“Did I give you permission to speak?” his candidate demanded.</p><p>King Ugo continued, “We will also have to increase the requirements in order to choose a Plate. You must win three games instead of just one. Likewise, there will be many more Games until the final day ten days from today.”</p><p>Now he got both Plates and candidates against Riki!</p><p>“This is a bit much,” Raoul complained, more out of confusion than anger. “If Riki keeps his promise, will it even do anything against the annual Games? They will be missing just two Plates!”</p><p>Iason hadn’t even thought of Amoi that far. He only imagined seeing his family and leaving everything behind, but now that he did think about Amoi- yes, this was too much for just two Plates! At least a few dozen Plates went ‘missing’ every year, and most of those who looked for them afterwards were their owners. It’s not like they looked very hard either. For the most part, it was a month or two of search, and then, as Iason had heard, they could apply for another, older Plate. Even for Plates with specialized assets, like the aforementioned diamond-tears Tsukino, the world didn’t come to a halt for them once they went missing.</p><p>Neither Raoul nor Iason had any special abilities, and none of the rest of his Pattern mattered at the present moment. So why the desperation?</p><p>“Is he seriously not going to leave?”</p><p>“Why does he want a Plate so badly?”</p><p>“He’s so dark…. Might he deal in the dark magics?”</p><p>Stupidity abounded.</p><p>“Maybe that Plate has him under some sort of spell?”</p><p>“The collar should prevent that!”</p><p>The King still was not yet done. His voice took on a dark tone, heavy with disgust: “If you are not moved by money, how this may help you and your loved ones, your friends, the people who helped you grow over the years, then you must be here to sabotage the Summer Games! You’re a demon who wishes to curse our holy festival!”</p><p>Demon! This refuse in rich clothes, a monstrosity taking advantage of his position to abuse children! To call Riki a demon, to call anyone a demon! The heaviest of insults, almost a curse in of itself.</p><p>“Leave, Demon!”</p><p>“Demon! You will ruin everything!”</p><p>The multitudes of people came together to berate him, while Riki stared at only the king.</p><p>Iason could feel it, feel everyone’s expectations of Riki to take the money, abandon the Games, abandon him. Only a fool would pass up this chance.</p><p>“How many orphans can you take care of with fifty thousand gold pieces, Demon?”</p><p>Many orphans.</p><p>“You could lift many a destitute family from the gutters.”</p><p>He could put half the money to charity and still be able to do everything fifty thousand could get done.</p><p>“One Plate against all else.”</p><p>Just him… Just Iason. On a child’s promise. Riki could be set for life! What was Iason doing! He could still take that offer, or any offer if Riki asked for it, for he knew they just didn’t want Riki to have a Plate. If they were separated, Riki could still keep his promise, for their promise didn’t specify exactly when he needed to bring Iason home. It might even be a smarter decision to take this offer now and try to meet again later, so that Riki could keep his promise.</p><p>“Riki.” He could do it. “Take the offer.”</p><p>The King brought up a golden-gloved hand to the sky. Lowering it, he did the obvious and pointed at Riki. </p><p>“Your choice? Sabotage the Games? Or delight in unbelievable comfort?”</p><p>The silence stifled Iason’s breath to a point he felt he would cry, but he held in his tears. Even when Riki took his hand, he merely took in a heavy breath, readying his eyes to accept his fate.</p><p>“Iason.”</p><p>“Yes, Riki?”</p><p>“Can I kiss you?”</p><p>A kiss! Is that what this man asked in the middle of all this?</p><p>“Will you be taking the offer?” Iason couldn’t stop himself from asking, even though he didn’t really want to hear the reasonable answer.</p><p>“What?” Riki chuckled. “To hell with that! I just wanted to kiss you in front of everybody and piss them off.”</p><p>Riki was so his type! They were going to get married! He will have his children!</p><p>“Of course.” Despite the request, Iason dropped his head down to press their lips together, much to the shocked gasps of the candidates and Plates, and the pearl-clutching idiots in the stands.</p><p>A tongue, Riki’s hot tongue licked softly between his lips, a delicious burn across mouth, which he of course opened to let in more of him. That much more sent a burst of flavor across his own tongue, blackened meat with a complex nutty aftertaste. Iason swallowed it all- and his neck burned! The collar was so tight! What was happening? In a bit of fright, he pulled back, but Riki grabbed onto the back of his head, threading his fingers in his hair, around his horn.</p><p>“Fuck.” Riki deepened the kiss again, then separated. “You taste amazing. I’ve never tasted anyone so delicious.”</p><p>Iason would have said something, but the collar throttled both air and sound. Riki registered not Iason’s hands shoving against his shoulders; Iason might as well have pushed a mountain. Any other time, such a discovery would be thrilling, but now, he felt himself losing consciousness. He really just wanted to get this stupid collar off!</p><p>“Riki! His collar!”</p><p>Yes, Raoul! He couldn’t even feel the kiss anymore! The collar will snap his head off! Will that really kill him? No, it shouldn’t; he’s lost his head before. He’s even slowly been choked to death, with the sparkling stars transforming to dark spots in a halo of encircling darkness. The pain disappeared, sound disappeared, everything went black.</p><p>An entirely anticlimactic snap of his collar, almost as if it- he fainted in Riki’s waiting arms.</p><p>!~!</p><p>It was as if a small cannon had gone off, or a magicked hand cannon.</p><p>Riki had been pulled from a deep well of pleasure- honestly, he still felt sunk underneath Iason’s scent, and from there he could smell Raoul, and the lightning-struck peach tree smell they shared. That’s exactly what he could smell. He’s never smelled exactly that, but he knew what lightning-struck things smelled like, and he knew what a peach tree smelled like. Smash them together, and he could smell Iason’s Pattern.</p><p>He needed to focus!</p><p>“Iason!” Raoul screamed. “Iason! Are you alright?” He aided Riki in holding him up, which was all very awkward because of Iason’s large wings.</p><p>Wings?</p><p>His horns were larger and a stark ivory color, the tiny bolts of electricity in his hair were even more obvious, and said hair went all the way down to his ankles. His hands grew talons as white as his horns and his body- his <em>body</em>! He was taller, of course, as those ginormous wings needed much more space, but apparently those wings needed muscles all over his body. His breasts were more defined, and his nipples were bigger! No downsides to this change whatsoever!</p><p>Okay, his robes were torn around the fitting of his elbows and shoulders, but such things were easily replaced.</p><p>“He’s waking up! Iason?”</p><p>Raoul shook Iason a bit as his eyes fluttered open.</p><p>He sniffed first, turning his eyes towards Raoul. Upon seeing him, he smiled the biggest smile Riki’s ever seen so far.</p><p>“Raoul! Why do you look so scared when today’s such a wonderful day?”</p><p>Iason straightened up, and upon the sight of Riki, he exclaimed, “Riki!”</p><p>Using both arms and legs, Iason wrapped his arms around him- and he felt as heavy as if he was made of feathers instead of flesh and bone.</p><p>“Riiiiiiki. Rikiiiiiiii! Riki~ Riki~ Riiiikiiiii~”</p><p>“By the gods, the collar breaking must have broken apart his faculties!” Raoul worried aloud.</p><p>“I guess no kisses for you.”</p><p>“This is no joking matter, Riki!”</p><p>“NO!” Iason screamed. “Raoul calls Riki ‘master’. Only Iason can call Riki, Riki!”</p><p>“THE GAMES MUST BEGIN!”</p><p>Blessedly under the noise of excited yells and cheers, Iason shouted, “Yes! Usher in the Games, pedophile egomaniac!”</p><p>“Iason!” Raoul looked ready to faint.</p><p>Iason easily held himself on Riki’s body, so Riki had his hands free to squeeze Iason’s mouth shut. “Sh, sh, sh. Don’t say stuff like that. You wanna get murdered?” Iason blew a raspberry, and then giggled. When Riki released his mouth, Iason went back to singing his name and rubbing their cheeks (of their faces) together.</p><p>“This first Game will have a deadline of five hours, and shall immediately be followed by another Game, which deadline will be sundown! Which shall be followed by one last game that shall last only an hour! This will be the schedule for every day. All candidates and Plates will participate in all Games, until a winner chooses a Plate to remove them from the available pool!”</p><p>That’s why they started so early! Three Games each day… Thirty Games!</p><p>“As a caveat for these strange circumstances, winners are counted up to the fiftieth place!”</p><p>If things were perfectly even, that would mean up to 500 winners? The Plates were populated not only by debutantes, but also older Plates whose owners have died, and simply owners who wished to sell their Plate for the highest price that the Amoian government could provide. Still, they were greatly outnumbered by candidates chosen by debutantes, and candidates chosen for whatever other reason. As long as they never played in the Games before, an official invitation got them in.</p><p>“The first Game. Collect the coins of a Pattern of your choice. Second, with a Pattern of your choice, row a boat to the finish line. Third, a simple Game of tag.”</p><p>“Sounds exhausting!”</p><p>“They will work us to death!”</p><p>“It’s this little demon’s fault!”</p><p>Now they were going to call him ‘little’. Riki couldn’t wait for when he could compare his strength to that of the average candidate. They’ll see how far their height will carry them then!</p><p>Iason laughed in his ear. “You should tear off their arms and beat them with it. Will they call you little then? Tear off their arms!”</p><p>“If you harm another candidate or their entourage, or who you think is in their entourage, that’s an automatic disqualification,” Riki reminded him, although whether or not tearing their arms off would break the rules was <em>not </em>his top reason for not ripping off arms.</p><p>“Let the Games begin, and pray that the sabotage of the demon will not prevent our great, deserved enjoyment! Be off with you!”</p><p>Sharp pillars of bluish light sprung up from the inner circle, between toes and fingers and limbs, and Riki’s stomach churned. Like he had said, there were a lot of things he could do that other people couldn’t, but what he did not say was that much of it was accidental. If anything concerned forcing magic in or around his person, something about that magic will go spectacularly wrong. What’s more, the older the magic, the worse it could possibly get. If King Ugo was anyone to go by, everything about this magic was antiquarian.</p><p>So he was a bit surprised that nothing seemed to have happened as they were transported to a center gazebo of stone. The five straight sides had cemented paths to rooks. Seeing as there were no Plates among them, they had to be locked up in the towers, with the coins the candidates needed to collect.</p><p>“Hellooooo, Amoi! This is Zico! Your favorite announcer for the Amoian Summer Games! Not to be confused with the Spring, Winter, or Autumn Games, for they do not exist!” the excited voice of the always faceless, always loud Zico erupted from the sky. His voice would be over the stadium as well, and from within the mirrors or crystal balls those not physically at the Games used to see and hear what was happening.</p><p>“Since you’re unable to see right now, I will tell you that the Games have been sabotaged by the demon already! The Cryptic stones should have been delivered along with the candidates, and they were not! Now we must use resources to correct this, which will eat an hour into this Game!”</p><p>Several seconds later, Zico continued, “Also, several collars have been broken? Several Plates are not locked into a chamber. Several Plates are not in either chambers or the towers. They are deemed missing. If you find a lost Plate, return them to a Sentinel immediately! By the gods, anything else?”</p><p>He really fucked things up. Riki almost felt guilty, but he truly didn’t give a rat’s ass about any of the other contestants. He chose the nearest tower to see what was in store, jumping forward in that quick, ‘scary’ way of his.</p><p>“Unfortunately, we cannot pause the Game for the Cryptic stones arrival. Please use this hour wisely! The demon is already getting ahead!”</p><p>Lucky for them, only one Pattern interested Riki. When he arrived first at the base of the tower, he saw five elevators, powered by a single stone of indigo with white writing. They moved on their own at various intervals, but the same quick speed. They could carry at least twenty people.</p><p>“Hello?”</p><p>“Let me out!”</p><p>“Sophie? Daniel? Omar?”</p><p>The elevators did not stop at any of the ten floors, but the Plates were up there. Riki jumped easily from the ground floor up to the second, coming face to glass to where a Plate was. They were fondling their own breasts in wonder- Riki saw no collar on their neck, and with their black nipples and pink hair, they were not of the same Pattern as Iason and Raoul. Their coin rested at their feet, forgotten. If Riki wanted to, he could take it- perhaps.</p><p>The rectangular coffin in the wall the was topped with a single slab of magicked glass floating in the middle, giving enough room for a cube of Cryptic stone to be pushed through to torment the Plate into giving away their coin.  However, in the center of this slab was a slit big enough for a coin to be pushed through. To test his theory, Riki reached underneath the slab. A jarring shock of pure electricity rewarded his foolhardy efforts.</p><p>They had to give the coin ‘willingly’ through the slit then.</p><p>Riki looked around, counting way too many Plates. Instead of looking with his own eye-holes for way too long, he decided to yell, “IASON? RAOUL? Y’ALL IN HERE?”</p><p>As luck would have it: “WHY ARE YOU LOOKING FOR RAOUL? YOU NEED ONLY ME!”</p><p>May the gods have mercy on his soul.</p><p>“IASON! YOU’RE HERE! HIIIIIII, IASON, WHEREVER YOU AAAAAARE!”</p><p>Riki guessed (correctly) that this new voice was of the same Pattern with a broken collar. As they were lower than Iason, Riki flipped up four rows to get to them.</p><p>Large silver eyes looked down at him, attention enraptured. Their light hair was almost white, and, as he already got into the habit of doing, Riki measured their nipples to be much bigger than Raoul’s, jutting out from small breasts. Oddly enough, their genitals were squarely penis-shaped, of a good size, too. He still had his coin in his hand.</p><p>But Madam Langeais didn’t raise a man without manners.</p><p>“My name’s Riki. I’m from Ceres. What’s your name?”</p><p>“Hello, little Riki-”</p><p>“Just Riki.”</p><p>“-my name’s Leon, and I’m from… Uh… Um… A nest!”</p><p>Riki asked with forced interest, “A nest! What kind of nest?”</p><p>“Mama made the nest, and all my siblings come from it.”</p><p>Riki started as he realized what exactly they were talking about. “Your siblings?”</p><p>“The mean people that stole us call us ‘of the same Pattern’, but that’s not nice because it makes us sound like we aren’t people.”</p><p>“Yea, I know.” He knew before Leon told him, but of course, he couldn’t clarify with Guy and was truly sure only just then. “Sorry about that. Right now I’m trying to collect all your coins.”</p><p>Leon followed his eyes to the coin in his hand- brothers! So they were all ‘he’, right?</p><p>“Is this a Summer Game?”</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“You… don’t have a Cryptic stone.”</p><p>“I don’t want one.”</p><p>“What if I don’t give you the coin?”</p><p>“That’ll be real unlucky for me.”</p><p>His hair bounced around his shoulders and horns simply curved back from the front middle of his head, and a long, slick tail wavered back and forth behind him. Riki hadn’t noticed Iason’s tail! He was even more confused on what kind of people Plates actually were- they obviously weren’t birds, but they came from nests? They were not lizards, for they had wings. What could they possibly be with so various of parts? They were not of Ceresian varieties, mutts with no linear ancestry, so they were the same race. They shared so many characteristics.</p><p>“You’re nice. And cute. So I’ll give you my coin, okay?” Leon’s tail wrapped around a long, muscular leg. With a tongue sticking out a little bit, he carefully pushed the coin through its slot. The slot, before clear as the glass around it, became a striking black onyx color.</p><p>Riki snatched it from the air. “Thanks, Leon! Alright, I’ll see you, ‘kay?”</p><p>“Um, okay!”</p><p>Riki gave him a wink, and Leon smiled shyly, flipping up his tail to partially hide his face.</p><p>Leaping up four floors, he finally found Iason. Lips upturned in a hard pout, arms crossed, Iaosn seemed none too pleased to see him. Riki prayed to every god he knew that Iason’s reason would come back to him soon, because Riki couldn’t handle his childish, though adorable, antics.</p><p>“You went to see Leon before me!”</p><p>Riki sent up a couple more prayers. “They were closer, Iason,” he reasoned softly. “Anyway, give me your coin.”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“…<em>No?</em> Are you joking?”</p><p>“I’m not joking. I’m not giving my coin to a philanderer who doesn’t recognize who he’s supposed to be emotionally loyal to!”</p><p>“What did I do to deserve- look, how can I prove that I know I’m emotionally loyal to you?”</p><p>Iason squinted, frowning even harder, and Riki feared Iason would make up something impossible for the present, but he said instead, “Leave me for last! You know how they say, the best is for last? Like a dessert? Like a caramel apple… Mm… Apples….” Riki snapped his fingers to get Iason back on track. Without wiping away the bit of drool he produced from his daydreaming, Iason told him again, “Leave me for last!”</p><p>“Okay. Fine. How many siblings you got anyways?”</p><p>“Twelve. I’m the strongest!”</p><p>Riki paused, in talking, in moving, in breathing, in life.</p><p>The most of a ‘pattern’ he’s ever heard was five, and at that time, it was a marvel. A lot of Plates at once, and their closeness was no weaker than any other ‘patterns’ that had the normal amount of three or four members. They were among the many Plates over the years to be ‘lost’, although many surmised they had escaped with their owner’s son, who was particularly infatuated with all of them.</p><p>Thirteen was unheard of. Riki wasn’t even sure there were thirteen places to train Plates separately. Now, he was sure that part of the proctors’ disdain of him joining was owed to the fact that many of the Games required the cooperation of a few Plates, and it has long been prudent to gather Plates of the same ‘pattern’. Riki counted that at least a third of the usual Games would be won if a candidate chose a Plate party of thirteen. In this particular Game, it was as bad as bad could get. If Riki were a weaker man, the next boating Game would be night impossible. If the effects of their broken collars still hindered their mental acuity, the Game of tag was a pipe dream.</p><p>But first, this Game.</p><p>“Alright, best for last,” Riki muttered.</p><p>“Hurry up!” Iason ordered.</p><p>Although he was the one to leave him for last!</p><p>He realized Zico was doing his part announcing, “Look at this demon go! I have to admit, that’s pretty impressive! On the other hand, most other candidates are waiting for the Cryptic stones to come through. This Game is one of those which have the stones as an integral part to winning. Although the demon seems to have gotten a coin just by asking…”</p><p>From below, he could hear some wandering candidates ask aloud, “They’ll give it up if we just ask?”</p><p>“Let’s see.”</p><p>“The demon probably has some secret power to force them.”</p><p>Riki ran pass them, ignoring these fools in his path. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about any of them hitting him or something of the like, for any sabotage to him (or harm to his ‘entourage’ or home), would result in instant disqualification for candidates, and an instant mysterious illness for anyone else. Zapping the strength of the person, giving rise to fevers and chills, and an inability to keep down any food or drink, it was usually devasting for the average youth, and a death sentence for the elderly.</p><p>He went up tower two, yelling, “Raoul? Raoul’s broth- Pattern! Anyone in here?”</p><p>Three voices: “Yes!”, “Hello!”, “I’m here…”</p><p>“What’s y’all’s names?”</p><p>The three voices switched responses with, “Zeke!”, “Ruphias…”, “Hubert~”, and Riki heard where each of them were located. He hopped with ease to the second floor, where he heard Zeke’s voice the closest.</p><p>Two short, sharp, piercingly white horns stuck out from their forehead. His slim muscular body seemed to undulate in a watery motion as he turned away from Riki in surprise.</p><p>“You’re not a sentinel or a Carpet.”</p><p>“That’s right.”</p><p>His yellow eyes roamed his small compartment. “Are we… In a Game? I don’t remember much of anything of today. It feels like morning though.”</p><p>“It’s morning.”</p><p>“Good morning, then.” Zeke flipped their coin through their fingers. “I know this Game! But where are the other candidates?”</p><p>Riki jerked a finger below him. “There was a li’l mishap with the Cryptic stones, so a lot of them are waiting for their delivery.”</p><p>“You’re… not?”</p><p>“Nah.” Riki had a feeling he would be asked that quite a few more times.</p><p>“You sound fucking awesome!” Zeke pushed his coin through, making a small sound of surprise as the small slot turned jet-black. “Who picked you to be candidate? One of my brothers?” He paused. “Brothers. Brothers! I can say it! Brothers!” He went off into his own world mumbling his re-found word. Riki made his way upward.</p><p>Ruphias’ horns and wings were smaller than his brothers’, but they stuck straight out to either in such an uncomfortable way that they actually took up more room. His tail, however, wrapped three times around his feet. His eyes were also a yellow, but of a murkier hue.</p><p>“Hey! I’m Riki!”</p><p>Ruphias stared at him, nearly unblinking.</p><p>“Can I have your coin?”</p><p>A slow blink, and Ruphias looked at the coin in their hand. They looked back at Riki. They nodded.</p><p>“Okay, hand it over.”</p><p>Ruphias nodded.</p><p>They stared at each other.</p><p>“Can you hand it over now?” Riki tried.</p><p>Ruphias nodded. They did nothing.</p><p>Slowly enunciating each word while warily moving each finger individually, Riki said, “You put the coin in here.” He pointed to the slot. “You move your hand.” He pointed at Ruphias’ hand. “Put the coin in here. Yes!”</p><p>Ruphias followed his instructions, slowly, but surely!</p><p>
  <em>Tink! Tink! Clink!</em>
</p><p>They had trouble with aiming the coin through the slot.</p><p>
  <em>Clink! Clink! Tink! Tink! Ssssswp!</em>
</p><p>“Woo! Good job!” Riki cheered.</p><p>“Yay!” Ruphias cheered back. The tip of their tail wagged in happiness, and that honest display of simple joy kind of made everything worth it.</p><p>“Alright, gotta go.”</p><p>Ruphias’ hand waved slightly to the left, slightly to the right, and they were done.</p><p>The difference between this first impression of Ruphias and that of Hubert’s was night and day. They had a short fat tail thumping against the too-close walls of their space, with large wings much thicker than his brothers’.</p><p>Remembering that little detail, Riki could only see a thick mound of asymmetrical labia-looking things between Hubert’s thick thighs. When Hubert caught hm looking, he unfolded his member to show how an erection filled one of the little tendrils. Despite its small size, it was a grower, not a shower, and stretched to a size even bigger than the average man’s.</p><p>“Hello!” His horns were two large, tight spirals of bone, like a ram- which had Riki thinking that that was what their race was, but then he remembered the tails, the scales, the wings… He was very much the cutest of the brothers he’s seen so far.</p><p>“What’s up, Hubert?”</p><p>Hubert looked up, and Riki abruptly saw that Hubert still had his collar. So he was this cuddly man with such welcoming green eyes on the regular?</p><p>“The ceiling? I don’t know this building. It’s not a castle, or my room. Am I lost?”</p><p>“You’re in a Game.”</p><p>“A Game?” He looked around, noticing his coin. “Look at this sparkly! Sparkly.” Quite enamored with his ‘sparkly’, he seemed to forget Riki.</p><p>“Yo…”</p><p>“Ah!” Hubert jumped. “You scared me!”</p><p>Riki hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, sorry. Hey, I need your coin.”</p><p>Riki might as well have told Hubert he needed to kill his rabid puppy.</p><p>“But… It’s my sparkly.”</p><p>Riki would have had an easier time taking candy from an actual baby.</p><p>“You see, I want to win this Game, and I need you and all your bro- Patterns’ coins.”</p><p>“Will you give it back?”</p><p>“Yes! I sure will. Later…”</p><p>Hubert rubbed his coin, looking more depressed by the second. “How long will it take?”</p><p>Riki <em>could </em>have said it will take about a millennium if all the rest of his brothers wrung out every bit of motivation he had, but he didn’t. Being unkind to Hubert was not in the stars, and that was simply that.</p><p>“How about we trade?”</p><p>He took out his bag and dug out a few silver pieces, the newest of them.</p><p>“You’ll give me all those sparklies for this one?”</p><p>“Yep!”</p><p>Hubert’s palpable excitement filled Riki’s heart with a bit of a brotherly pride- which turned to brotherly dread as Hubert attempted to simply hand the coin over around the floating glass. The punishing zap probably ran a charge strong enough to harm a Plate, for Hubert slammed himself to the back of his area.</p><p>“Owie!” He sucked on the tip of his finger, putting a certain pronunciation to his squishy lips.</p><p>Clearing his throat, Riki tapped the slot. “Right here, alright?”</p><p>As soon as he collected the coin, he began pushing the silver pieces in.</p><p>“Sparklies! Sparklies! Hm-hmmm~” He looked so happy, Riki left him to it.</p><p>Zico informed the candidates then, “THE CRYPTIC STONES HAVE BEEN DELIVERED AT THE BASE OF EVERY TOWER AND THE CENTER PLAZA. THERE IS ONE FOR EACH OF YOU. Now, we shall truly revel!</p><p>“Also, a word from our divine ruler! The two later Games for today have been cancelled. We will be making adjustments for the continual sabotage. The two later Games shall be scheduled for tomorrow which <em>does </em>mean there will be five Games!”</p><p>Five Games! What were they thinking? Were they trying to get someone so upset so that they couldn’t care less about the sickness they would get from trying to kill him? Not harry, not sabotage, but straight up slit his throat when they were given the chance?</p><p>Riki hurried to the third tower, trying his usual tactic, and he was able to hear four names before he heard the first screams of tortured Plates as the first candidates so equipped found their way to Plates.</p><p>“Hey, Gideon? Name’s Riki,” he introduced himself with a short pant. With one hand to steady himself, he looked Gideon up down, noticing an inviting slimness to his musculature with straight hair glimmering even in a place so lacking light. Arms partly folded, he leaned against the wall, fondling the coin in his hand. He still had his collar.</p><p>“Aren’t you a hard-working little demon? Tell me, what’s the source of the strangeness of some of these other Plates? Did you curse them?” Gideon asked playfully, with a tone as if he hoped that him cursing the Plates was true.</p><p>Riki shrugged, taking the deepest of breaths before straightening. “For some reason, when they transported us here, some of the Plates’ collars broke off. Well, I kissed Iason and his collar broke, and it’s, uh, it’s having an effect…”</p><p>“Kissed… Their collars… broke…” Gideon’s face flashed a grin, and he grabbed his collar.</p><p>He plucked it off.</p><p>“You guys could break ‘em all this time?!”</p><p>Gideon waved him off. “No. I put on this fake collar years ago- well, this collar belonged to someone else and I put it on. Since they adjust each collar to each Plate, it’s useless right now!” He cocked his head, tapping his lower lip. “I suppose you remember, then? When you came through the tunnel and caused such mayhem at the Midnight Run?”</p><p>“Midnight Run?”</p><p>“Basically, Sentinels and Carpets and whoever can pay enough chase us Plates around with Cryptic Stones. It’s how they see who’s strong or if someone has undesirable qualities like being able to transport or breathe fire even with the collar on.”</p><p>“<em>Breathe fire?</em>”</p><p>Gideon puffed out a flame, thus remembering his coin as it reflecting the fire with a sharp glint. He passed it to Riki.</p><p>Taking it, Riki informed him, “I actually don’t remember that night, but Iason said I promised him, so here I am.”</p><p>“Truly! You denied generations’ worth of fortunes for a promise you can’t even remember?”</p><p>“Well, it seems I will die if I don’t keep the promise.”</p><p>“Did you know that when you accepted?”</p><p>“Maybe way deep inside?”</p><p>Gideon chuckled. “I’ll take that as a no.” Lowering his voice, he told Riki. “A word to the wise, you should leave Gilbert, then Orphe, for last. In that order. They long have had plans to ease the brunt of Plate living, and they might not be so taken by your heroism.”</p><p>With that forthright advice foremost in his mind, Riki continued upward to called Aisha. Easily possessing the most beautiful of features Riki’s ever seen, he nonetheless pushed his coin through and said, “Goodbye.”</p><p>Riki took quick stock of grey eyes, alluring S-shaped horns, rather sizable breasts with the tiniest nipples, and yet the largest penis out of all of them. “Uh. Thanks.” He didn’t even have his collar.</p><p>When he finished introducing himself to Griffith, the man busted out with laughter.</p><p>“You’re the demon they were talking about! Hahahaha!”</p><p>Hair puffed out in a lion’s mane hid his horns, and here Riki noticed fangs in his mouth. Thinking back, he realized he <em>had </em>seen them on the others, but perhaps only registered them now because Griffith was laughing so loudly.</p><p>“You’re a little kid! And they’re afraid of you! Wait.” He stopped laughing. “You can’t be a little kid. Kids aren’t allowed to participate in the Games. By the gods, you are cute!”</p><p>Riki would have loved to shoot back that Griffith was cute like his brothers Leon and Hubert, but Griffith was solid muscle with a strong face with an even stronger jawline. Even his penis- <em>wrapped in a metal cock ring</em>- jutted prominently from underneath his pronounced V-line. The ‘cutest’ thing about him were his long leathery lashes, and even then, with that face and hair, they seemed masculine.</p><p>His collar was gone as well. He seemed in his right mind, though.</p><p>“I bet I’m way stronger than you,” Riki voiced petulantly. Inwardly, he had his doubts. Iason and Raoul weren’t even remotely as strong-looking as Griffith and they gave him a bit of resistance.</p><p>“Oh? How’s your grip?”</p><p>Griffith teased out the coin.</p><p>“I can’t pull it out at all. You have to push it all the way.”</p><p>Griffith squinted, pushed the coin through, but Riki of course humored him. Once the glass turned black, Riki returned the coin to its slot, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. Experimentally, he showed how he could freely push the coin in and out.</p><p>At this, Griffith, still smiling, grabbed the other end of the oversized coin and pulled. His smile disappeared at the resistance he felt. His thick eyebrows squeezed across his forehead, and he grunted in focused effort to move the coin.</p><p>“Have we already started?” Riki taunted. “Let me just…” He pulled the coin all the way out.</p><p>“Again!” Griffith ordered, forehead smashed against the glass.</p><p>Riki pushed. Griffith grabbed, tried to pull, and Riki let him try for a minute then slipped the coin from his grasp.</p><p>“It’s because I just woke up!”</p><p>Riki didn’t immediately answer ‘sore loser’, but instead, “You just woke up?”</p><p>“Yes! They transported me into this fucking box and then I was… I don’t really remember… I think I started jerking off… And then I fell asleep and then you woke up calling for Raoul’s Pattern, and so I answered. If Raoul trusts you, then it’s probably for a good reason. Does he know how strong you are?”</p><p>“We might have gotten in a little arm-wrestling match.” Riki flexed.</p><p>“We’re gonna arm-wrestle later, then! I will not let this embarrassment stand!”</p><p>“See you next time, then.” Riki waved at him.</p><p>The last name he remembered to be Orphe’s, who needed to be last, according to Gideon. So, Riki hopped down past the hordes of candidates, tried to stifle the painful cries of the Plates he could not help with the speed of the wind howling in his ears. The fourth tower had a Marcus and Haynes way at the top, far beyond where many of the candidates could reach</p><p>“Hello! It’s me! Zico! I’m here to let you know that ten of the fifty places have been won! On a related note, the remaining Patterns all have members of three or more! Also, if you didn’t know, once you’re done, you’re automatically transported! You will be transported with the Pattern you collected, and you can choose which ones you would like to bring home, if you want any of them, of course. Can you afford two whole Plates to feed?”</p><p>At first, Riki couldn’t believe anyone could finish so quickly, but if there were only two or one of a Pattern, it was now surprising that only ten places have been won. Did no one actually go around and just ask the Plates for their coins, and instead waiting for a stone to take the easy route? Surely, Riki wasn’t some special thinker who had compassion among his emotions…</p><p>Anyway… Haynes was the first brother with short hair, but his horns made a large circle around his skull. He must have also napped, for his collar was gone, but he seemed to be ‘all there’. His body seemed most similar to Iason, a perfect mix of muscle and fat, but his tail was massive, probably not in proportion, as he had it around his shoulders like a scarf.</p><p>“Mornin’.”</p><p>“Uh, morning. How many coins do you have?” His eyebrows were screwed in worry.</p><p>“Seven, not including Iason, who chose me as candidate.”</p><p>Sighing, Haynes remarked, “I guess it doesn’t matter who I give it to. My candidate was just randomly chosen as I hid in a tent. I don’t even know what they look like.” His dark blue eyes stared at his feet.</p><p>“Well, you can come over to my place, along with your brothers, after all this.”</p><p>Despite this news, he frowned. “All of us? All thirteen of us?”</p><p>“All thirteen of you, if all y’all want to.”</p><p>Of course, it’ll take some finagling with the rest of the Bison crew, but he’s had his endless wallet since forever, and only Bison knew how much they were worth. It wasn’t fifty thousand coins exactly, for most of his assets were in big chunks of precious stones, solid gold or silver figures, and basically anything that would need a long explanation once pawned. Where did a young Ceresi get a crown fit for a king? ‘Being born with it’ was not a plausible answer.</p><p>“Alright, then, have it.” Haynes relinquished the coin. He dropped to wrap his arms around his knees.</p><p>As Riki was going across from him, Haynes murmured, “I hope you’re telling the truth.”</p><p>Super curly hair, wide hips, small horns with exactly one curl, Marcus tried to hide in his hair.</p><p>“You said you’re Marcus? I’m Riki.”</p><p>“Hi. Are you really…” Haynes hid completely in his hair. “Are you really going to take us all home? Like you told Haynes?”</p><p>“I plan to,” Riki promised, very much happy that Haynes and Marcus were agreeable and relatively trusting. Granted, he was lucky any of them answered at all.</p><p>Zico yelled, making Marcus shrink into a pile of hair and tail, “Just wanted to tell you that we are halfway through the winners! There are only ten groups of threes left! As you might have already noticed, picking up the coin of a Pattern different from the one you already have, returns the earliest coin!”</p><p>Riki worried not about that!</p><p>Covering his ears, Marcus quickly let go of his coin to and went back to kneeling. Just three more to go- not including Iason.</p><p>Riki was at the last tower and yelled upwards and heard nothing. But he still needed a Gilbert, and Raoul.</p><p>Then there was a scream, “Riki!”</p><p>“Raoul? I’m coming!” It was merely the third floor, and Riki knew which of the glass coffins he was in before he even saw him.</p><p>He was being tortured by three men who woke up on the wrong side of the gods-damn bed apparently. They took turns pressing in their Cryptic stone around the glass.</p><p>“Get the fuck off ‘im, you impotent fuckers!”</p><p>The men turned with snarls on their faces. With a smirk, one of them jabbed Raoul.</p><p>“Hii!” Raoul tried to keep in his yell.</p><p>“What’re you gonna do, mongrel? Hit us? Take away our stones? You can’t do shit.”</p><p>They blocked him from getting close.</p><p>Riki wasn’t going to let these assholes keep him from winning at least this Game. For some reason, Riki did not want all these efforts to go to waste… and he wanted to bring them home. All of them. These inconsequential sacks of trash.</p><p>He must not get too angry. He will not be disqualified in a single gods-damn Game!</p><p>Keeping his feet firmly on the floor, Riki scooted forward inch by inch.</p><p>“Are you really trying to move us?”</p><p>“Nope. Just moving in this free space here.” His body sidled into the free space, and even more of the free space as the men moved away by reflex. They were touching tightly, their chests pushed against his chest, his arm, his back. Whenever there was a space, he leaned further.</p><p>One of the men tried to squeeze past, but he couldn’t move Riki’s chest, couldn’t budge it in the slightest. He had to step back, and with that Riki slipped past finally to stand in front of Raoul.</p><p>Although touching a Cryptic stone above the shoulders was cause for instant disqualification, they still had done quite a number on Raoul’s arms, legs, and feet. Riki’s stomach rolled at the sight.</p><p>“Please! Take it!”</p><p>Riki snatched it as soon as it was free. Still, he agonized over leaving Raoul.</p><p>“You’ll be okay?”</p><p>“The stones can’t get through now,” Raoul answered, breathing heavily. With eyes squeezed shut, and a few flames bursting from his mouth, all injuries healed themselves within moments. A few spots of sweat had drops rolling down his body.</p><p>Green eyes. Soft curls of hair down to his ankles. Hips, child-bearing. Lips, wide and thick.</p><p>And his breasts. Massive. They were the biggest breasts Riki’s ever seen in his life. He would have thought Raoul was a woman if not for what Riki has seen of his brothers’ genitals.</p><p>“So… Are you a he?”</p><p>“Hm?” Raoul looked down, nodding. “Oh. Yes. Please. I grew this body because three of the Carpets preferred such blatantly feminine shapes. However, I made a mistake in forming the breasts so that they are always producing milk. Without the collar, I would need to milk them every day.”</p><p>
  <em>Milk them. </em>
</p><p>“I know my body is quite obscene. Unfortunately, I am now too old to change it.”</p><p>“That’s alright. You look fine.”</p><p>“You think so?”</p><p>Riki thought of how this was a very, very, very, very bad time to have an erection, so he said quickly, “I sure do! So, I’ll just get these last three coins and come back.”</p><p>He ran away before he embarrassed himself.</p><p>“Gilbert!” Silence. “I don’t know where you are!” Silence. “You’re the only one!”</p><p>When no one answered then, he went back to the first tower.</p><p>“Gilbert! Gilbert! Giiiiilbert!”</p><p>“The demon seems to have hit a wall!” Zico’s cheerfulness went straight to his brain. He just wanted to be done with this Game! He was so close to winning!</p><p>“I suppose he won’t have the chance to spoil all those Plates after all. By the gods, isn’t that a due occurrence! The largest Pattern on record, slated to be treated by a demon who thinks they are more than playthings. A fool!”</p><p>Riki muttered under his breath, “Suck my dick, Zico.”</p><p>He went to the third tower, screaming, and heard clearly, “RIKI.”</p><p>He jumped one floor, finding Gilbert.</p><p>Without preamble, Gilbert told him, “The only reason why I am giving you this coin is because Zico said you would spoil me. I don’t want to live a hard life. You need to be poor enough to need me in a content enough mood, and rich enough to take care of me if I’m especially behaved.” His body was a bit thin, but pretty, with long claws and a long thin tail flipping angrily. His horns curved out bull-style.</p><p>“I didn’t want to threaten my chanced with my candidate, but I have figured out an excuse on getting back to him, after I am done with you.”</p><p>“Done with me?”</p><p>Gilbert’s silvery brows lifted. “Yes. Done with you. The coin is at your feet.”</p><p>Riki looked down, snatching up the coin.</p><p>“Run along now. Hurry up.”</p><p>No wonder Gideon told him to leave him and Orphe for last! One would think they weren’t raised as Plates, but it did somewhat hearten Riki, knowing there were Plates who could navigate the dead-end system they were in. It was the smartest thing to plan for, and if Riki and Guy were wrong about their overnight ‘discoveries’, all of them needed such a back-up plan. He would make sure they did, and he will help them.</p><p>With that promised to himself, he found Orphe.</p><p>“I have plans.” Almost as quick as Aisha, Orphe, with sharp thin brows, dark eyes of orange, and his horns went out and curved oddly right at the tips. A good goring in the abdomen would tear a body a to shreds. He had an invitingly womanly body, not so erotic as Raoul’s by far, but enough to fool someone with dull eyes that he was weaker than he actually was, a trait preferable in Plates, by far.</p><p>Still, Riki didn’t come this far to stop now. “That’s what Gideon implied,” he told Orphe.</p><p>“Should I take that to mean that you have his coin?”</p><p>“Yes…?”</p><p>“Do not lie to me. We have made these plans long ago. He wouldn’t change them at the last minute for no reason.”</p><p>“Then why answer me?” Riki’s annoyance came out unbridled.</p><p>“If you had come sooner, I could have been able to tell you not to waste your time.”</p><p>“Well. I have wasted my time. Only coins I need now are yours and Iason’s.”</p><p>“Do you not mean mine and Gilbert’s?”</p><p>Riki pointed at his own neck as he said, “Iason hadn’t had his little nap after his collar broke. Sorry about that, by the way.”</p><p>Orphe’s eyes widened. “You can break collars with what? Your good looks?”</p><p>“Honestly? Don’t know. I’m a mongrel with no mum, no dad, with a bombardment of lineages all over my person.”</p><p>“Of lineages?” Orphe sent his eyes all over Riki’s person. “What?”</p><p>Riki flexed his double tails, flickered his catty ears, flattened those to showcase his teeny horns- at these, Orphe frowned. Still, Riki flexed out his fangs a bit, his claws.</p><p>Orphe stood up straight, nearly smashing his face against the glass.</p><p>“Turn around,” he ordered.</p><p>Riki obliged him.</p><p>“Remove your shirt.” Riki grinned over his shoulder, removed the shirt. “Spread your wings far apart. That’s what I thought! Here is my coin.”</p><p>“Wait, what? What did you see?” Riki flipped down his shirt and turned, absentmindedly putting this coin with the rest in a pocket.</p><p>Orphe told him. “It all makes sense now.”</p><p>“How? What?” Riki demanded. “You look at my body parts and think of something? What?”</p><p>“Desperate to know your origins?”</p><p>“I’ll buy you anything you want tonight.”</p><p>“Tonight?” Orphe scoffed. “I have centuries to live. What good is tonight to think of? To torture me of better times, of a better creature who could not keep me?”</p><p>Riki sighed. “I’mma try to win you all.” Another scoff. “I think I can.” Scoff. “If you don’t wanna tell me, then, fine. I ain’t gonna beg.”</p><p>Orphe smiled.</p><p>“Well, I do want you to keep your promise, and I do not think you’re a better creature.”</p><p>“What kinda creature you think me?”</p><p>“The same.” Orphe glanced at his fingernails. “Well. Not the same as I. But I’ve seen Plates like you.”</p><p>“Plate?!”</p><p>“Yes. Every brood of the same parents, the same so-called Pattern, has a way when a fetus is alone in an egg, absent their hatchmate.”</p><p>“Is y’all’s… Hubert?” Riki guessed.</p><p>“Oh? You were paying attention? Yes, Hubert, my good Sir, was born alone in an egg with too much fluid. From the looks of you, your egg was probably too small, and that’s… about it, I suppose.”</p><p>Egg too small? How big was his egg? How big were regular eggs? He was born from an egg?! “What did you see between my wings that makes you think all that?”</p><p>“Scales, you dummy. Scales are the last things to form in the egg, much like a bird’s feathers, and if your egg was too small, you would break out before the scales could properly form.”</p><p>Riki shook his head. “Why am I not with the lot of you then?”</p><p>Orphe shrugged his slender shoulders. “Most likely because you’re not from Amoi. All of Amoi’s dragons are cursed- no one knows what they are, I know- just know we’re dragons. Anyway, dragon parents are trapped somewhere, their nests sent somewhere else. Every last one of them. However did you make it all the way to Ceres?”</p><p>Now it was Riki’s turn to scoff. “They didn’t want me, like any other orphan. Or they are dead.”</p><p>There was a silence.</p><p>Then Orphe burst out laughing.</p><p>“What the fuck you laughing for?”</p><p>Orphe covered his mouth, still giggling a bit. “Little demon. It takes a Plate’s parents to survive until we’re old enough to leave the nest. We need a mother’s milk, we need more meat than seems possible, most likely by a father who would bring elephants every month.” Orphe looked past Riki’s head, then flashed his own at Riki’s eyes again. “And seeing as you’re strong, intelligent, and causing all sorts of mischief with no effort of your own- your parents took utmost care of you, just like mine had taken such good care of Hubie.”</p><p>“Dead, then.”</p><p>“How?”</p><p>Riki started. “How? Whatchu mean? Got killed, of course.”</p><p>“Do you know how to kill me? Plates in general?”</p><p>Riki blinked.</p><p>“Exactly. So think of this. All of Amoian’s dragons are cursed, <em>but </em>why aren’t there any dragons from other countries then? Finding a lack of dragons here? No, no, little demon. Somehow, new dragons are kept out of Amoi, and the ones here are cursed. I’m most certain your parents are looking for you, high and low.”</p><p>“All three-Plate Patterns have been collected!” Zico yelled. “Here’s a hint- many of you have coins from the same Pattern. Perhaps you can come to a compromise? You do not win if you don’t possess all the coins!”</p><p>Orphe ordered, “Hurry up and get Iasonn’s coin so that we may all be released, and you buy me anything I want.”</p><p>Riki had just the smallest inkling that he would greatly regret forging such a promise, but he was finally able to finish with all this. This first Game, of many…</p><p>What the hell is a dragon!</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Remember, higher rating incoming!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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